This afternoon, the Sound Transit Board will release its draft plan for Sound Transit 3, the light rail package you'll vote on this fall. When the time comes to vote, we must expand light rail in Seattle and throughout Puget Sound. The next few months are about how that happens.

As you can see on the map above, we already have a sense from those close to the board's discussions of what the package will include. Today will reveal important specifics and begin the process of public comment on the draft. The board is expected to adopt a final plan in June and send it to the November ballot.

Here are a few things to watch for today:

• What is the timespan of the package? Shefali Ranganathan, director of the Transportation Choices Coalition (which will run the ST3 campaign), says she's expecting a 25-year-long tax measure, which would raise about $27 billion. That money would then be combined with other sources to raise $48 billion total, according to Sound Transit. (Some advocates have called for 30 years.)

• What will the board propose in Kirkland, where residents and city officials are arguing over rail vs. busses vs. nothing? This is part of a broader question of what is offered to the suburbs. Seattle's sexiest projects—light rail to Ballard and West Seattle—must be paired with projects in the suburbs in order to generate enough support region-wide for the package to pass.

• Which of the lines on the map above will be funded as studies only, not actual construction? Two likely possibilities: the line from Alaska Junction south to White Center and Burien and the line between Bellevue and Issaquah.

• Will an east-west connection between Ballard and the University of Washington make it into the package? The "go big" activists at Seattle Subway are pushing hard for this line. King County Executive Dow Constantine, who chairs the Sound Transit Board, has said it could be included as a study.

• How much will the board propose spending on parking? As Publicola reported last year, the board considered nearly $1 billion in parking projects. The draft plan will reveal how many of those they actually want to build.

• How many "early wins" will the plan include? Seattle's elected officials have asked that ST3 include some projects that could be done before new light rail lines are opened in 15-plus years. Those projects could be things like new stations on already funded lines or improvements to rapid ride bus lanes and signal prioritization. Those are all good things, but they siphon money away from the prime mission—building rail lines.

I'll be tweeting some updates from the meeting this afternoon, which starts at 1:30. (The wonks at Seattle Transit Blog will probably be tweeting a lot more.) You can watch the meeting live right here.