Today:The Mayor's Budget is Coming

As Governor Gregoire prepares for an emergency special session in November to help close (or at least address) the billion dollar budget gap, the Mayor Mike McGiin, too, will be facing the reality of too many expenses, and too little money. Because, despite the cheerful forecasts and declarations that the recession is over, the fact is, everyone's still broke. Today, we'll find out exactly how broke the city is, when McGinn presents his 2012 budget plan.

The Mayor, who has a packed schedule tomorrow, will be delivering multiple speeches, as well as presenting the budget to the City Council at 2:00 p.m. today. There's quite a bit of speculation about what will be presented--and how well it will be received by the councilmembers, many of whom have had their differences with McGinn in the past.

At least three councilmembers have already weighed in on what they're looking for from the budget, as well as what they think they'll have to confront in it. According to Council Chair Richard Conlin, "Traditionally, these midterm adjustments have been relatively modest. They’ll have to be more significant in 2012, as circumstances are not good."

It's likely that this budget will contain plenty cuts to services and programs (read: lay-offs), but will also contain initiatives aimed to drum up revenue and continue to move toward improvements in the city. It's a delicate balance--and one that will have to appease both the council and the voters. As Councilmember Sally Clark stated in a recent blog post:

For the current Mayor and the Council, the reputed Chinese curse “may you live in interesting times” might be amended to be: “may you govern in really broke times.” This will be Mayor McGinn’s second budget and the second time he’s had to propose layoffs and program cuts. Not an enviable position and one I know he does not take lightly.

Likely one of the most contentious provisions, it's being reported, will be the halt on hiring of police officers. Seattle's police receive some of the highest base salaries in the country, and an experiment earlier this year (in which newly-vacant police jobs went unfilled) revealed substantial savings. However, councilmembers have already expressed a stern hope that law enforcement is not one of the areas that sees cuts.

Public hearings regarding cuts and initiatives proposed in today's budget are already scheduled for Oct. 4 and Oct. 26, both of which will be held in the Council Chambers. At this time, citizens, business owners and activists can come forward and address any and all matters of the proposed budget. The final day for the council to vote on the budget is November 21.