OK, reality check: Anybody know how big the city of Portland's total annual budget is? It's $2.75 BILLION this year. (Even when the economy sucks, cities this size do not simply come grinding to a halt.) And anybody know how small a portion of that $2.75 billion $200,000 is? It's 0.007 percent. That is, 7 one-thousandths of 1 percent. In other words, pocket change.

So, for comparison purposes, say you make $50,000 a year. You know how much money 0.007 percent of that would be? $3.50. Or, to make the comparison one a Portlander would understand: Less than the cost of a medium vanilla latte at Stumptown.

If you were worth that $50k a year, and a good friend came up to you and said, "Hey, buddy, I really need $3.50. It's important. It'll make a world of difference to me," -- well, sure, you could say to him, "Over my dead body. Times are tough. I'm a little short this year. Ask me in a couple of years. Maybe I'll be able to help you out then." You'd be a jerk, but yes, if you really didn't want to help you could say that.

Or you could say: "My friend is important. I'll give him the help that's so important to him. Even if my own wallet is in the worst shape it's been in in years, I can certainly scrounge up a measly $3.50 by cutting something else. I mean, how hard can it be ? It's only $3.50. Nobody's that cheap, right?"

And even if that friend took the $3.50 and ran off to spend it on something you thought was a wasteful luxury -- say, his own latte at Stumptown -- would it really be that big a deal?

$200,000 for the symphony to appear at Carnegie Hall? City Hall probably spends more than that on donuts every year.