Provo Mayor Lewis Billings wants to make sure people understand the scope of next year's budget. He wants to make sure people take note of how far-reaching it really is.

So he's giving the 2006-2007 budget briefing next Tuesday from a helicopter, while the Provo Municipal Council, members of the media and other interested parties watch the video feed from the Novell complex in southeast Provo.

The helicopter is not coming out of the city's budget; Universal Helicopter is donating the machine and time. Billings selected the chopper flyover to focus some attention to the budget and to change things up a little, thus encouraging people to pay attention, city spokeswoman Raylene Ireland said.

"He's done eight of them; he's been mayor for eight years, and we were just talking about the fact that some things in the city are more important than people tend to realize," she said.

To lend the budget a citywide, inclusive perspective, Billings is opting to fly over the city and transmit images of what he is seeing into the briefing. It provides an overall view of the city instead of just pieces, Ireland said.

Billings will lift off from the Provo Airport, talk about different points of the budget interspersed with the images, then land at Novell, present the overall budget and answer questions.

Matt Hewlett, director of operations for Universal Helicopter in Provo, said they got involved when he started talking to airport manager Steve Gleason, who mentioned what the mayor wanted to do. It wasn't feasible for a plane, but it was for a helicopter. Hewlett said he went to the owner, he said Billings had always had a good relationship with Universal, and told him, "let's just do it for free for these guys."

He declined to comment on any specifics of the trip, not wanting to reveal anything Billings had planned.

"I think he's going to show a lot," he said.

Last year's budget came in at about $146 million.

Heidi Toth can be reached at 344-2543 or This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it