A handful of reporters gathered on the seventh floor of City Hall this morning to hear how Mayor Greg Nickels plans to balance the budget now that forecasters are predicting that the city's revenue will drop another $29 million this year.

But the process this morning was a little backwards. The way it worked was that first Nickels held a press conference, then afterwards, reporters were told what the mayor plans to cut from the budget.

Elizabeth Campbell, sponsor of anti-Alaskan-Way-Viaduct-tunnel Initiative 99, says she will announce her bid for mayor at the end of this month.

"I will announce between the 24th and 29th," Campbell said. "Right now I am working out all the logistics and details. When I announce you'll know what I stand for."

Mayor Greg Nickels is still holding tight to the hope that the federal government will grant Seattle the $50 million needed for the Mercer Street project, he said at a press tour of South Lake Union today.

Nickels said the Washington State Department of Transportation won't let go of the funds he's after because the money is supposed to support state highways exclusively.

After years of planning, the demolition of buildings on the corner of Broadway and East John hails the start of construction of the Capitol Hill light rail station, and yesterday, City Council members met to debate the still incomplete plans for a $140 million streetcar serving First Hill and Capitol Hill.

"I really question the financial wisdom of building a streetcar network when we could expand metro transit significantly for far less," Councilmember Tom Rasmussen said as he entered the meeting.

Well the Seattle City Council is back to where they were two months ago regarding the Mercer Corridor project money, well, sort of.

If you remember, in late February the City Council voted to lift the spending restriction, called a proviso, on the Mercer project funding, even though the city didn't have enough cash to complete the South Lake Union transportation, or depending on who you talk to, beautification project.

The purpose of the proviso is to prevent the city from starting a project that it can't complete.

In a special meeting today, the Seattle City Council Transportation committee approved a measure to reverse a council vote last month to release the money to get started on the Mercer Corridor project.

A bare-bones transportation budget was announced Wednesday by top-ranking Senators on the State Senate's Transportation Committee. The focus of the budget is to keep afloat high profile projects, such as the Alaskan Way Viaduct, the 520 projects and the ailing ferry system.

The state is facing a $514 million transportation shortfall for the 2009-11 biennial budget. The decline of funds is because the state gets the majority of its revenue for transportation projects from the state gas tax.

Prostitution and the Mercer Corridor project will be up for debate this week in the Seattle City Council.

Councilmember Tim Burgess wants anyone busted for patronizing a prostitute charged an additional $150 fee to cover the cost of john school to educate johns on the evils of prostitution.

In Olympia, the state Senate passed a bill Wednesday to move forward on securing state funding to replace the Alaskan Way Viaduct with a deep bore tunnel that Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels proposed this past January.

"We have a plan and it's time to move forward," said the bill's sponsor Sen. Ed Murray, D-Seattle.

After weeks of delays and public testimony, the Seattle City Council voted Monday to approve changes to the city's noise ordinance.

"The whole goal of the legislation is to strengthen enforcement of the ordinance," Councilmember Sally Clark, chair of the Planning, Land Use and Neighborhoods committee, explained as she introduced the council bill.

Microsoft billionaire Paul Allen has lots of friends in Seattle. Why wouldn't he, he's a billionaire? Council member Jan Drago has been Allen's point-person in the City Council, and Mayor Greg Nickels his goto-guy in the executive. To see the results, just look at South Lake Union, where Allen's Vulcan Inc is redeveloping 60 acres of commercial and residential real estate.

So what really happened? Did Mayor Greg Nickels and Seattle Councilmember Jan Drago know that the Mercer Project was not on the list to receive federal funding before the City Council voted on Monday to remove the spending restriction, releasing the available funds to get the two year project going? Or were Nickels and Drago as dumbfounded as everyone else when the Mercer Project didn't make the cut?

On Monday, the City Council will discuss and possibly vote on modifications to the noise pollution ordinance that if passed will allow large construction projects, such as replacing the Alaska Way Viaduct and the Mercer Mess, to operate outside of the current noise restrictions.

The Seattle City Council Transportation Committee met Tuesday morning to discuss a number of transportation issues, including Sound Transit Link Light Rail System fares.

The Alaskan Way Viaduct will turn 56 this year. While it's widely agreed that it's time for the old girl to go the way of the buffalo, the only consensus among those involved in planning a replacement seems to be that actually reaching a consensus is tricky business.