The problem at St. John's city council isn't the recent budget.
Council is a nest of ego and ambition. Not so very long ago, council members fought among themselves privately and publicly. Some of it wasn't very pretty. Some of it was often very petty. But in the clash among councillors the public found out about what was happening with their city.
The current crop of councillors decided that the best thing for them to do is take decisions and debate out of the public view and to move it behind closed doors, into the shadows. They caught the disease of arrogance and entitlement that infects provincial politics.
The budget was nothing more than a symptom of the deeper problems at city hall.