The mayor will announce the details of his 2016 budget today at 2 p.m.
The mayor will announce the details of his 2016 budget today at 2 p.m. City of Seattle

Today, Mayor Ed Murray will announce how he plans to spend all your money next year.

The annual budget speech happens at 2 p.m. and will be live-streamed here. In his speech, the mayor will tout all the great things he wants to do for the city in 2016 and probably give some parting gifts to outgoing council members.

Immediately afterward, Council Member Kshama Sawant will speak to reporters about her response to the budget, which will likely be that it's still too heavy on money for cops and light on money for social services. She'll also announce details about this year's "people's budget" hearing, at which the public can testify about what they want to see in the budget.

Then, the city council will spend two months wrangling over what to add and take away from the budget. The final council vote on the budget is set for November 23, after which everyone involved will go get drunk at Thanksgiving dinner.

Here are a few things to watch out for in the mayor's speech, including making sure he follows through on certain promises he's made throughout the year.

Tent encampments: It was a big step last year when the council budgeted money to help pay for things like porta-potties and garbage collection at homeless encampments. That money was directed at existing encampments, which get temporary city permits or operate on church land. Since then, the city has OK'd three tent encampments on public land. Those are still not set up, but are expected to cost about $200,000 total per year. (Speaking of encampments, the Low Income Housing Institute wants to include some tiny houses in the Ballard tent encampment. Fundraising is ongoing for that effort, but city leaders could kick in some money if they wanted to.)

Career Bridge: This program connects men of color to jobs and services and received $400,000 in funding in the current year's city budget. In previous years, some questioned its effectiveness, but an audit of the program released this year shows that it has a strong record of connecting people to jobs. So, some advocates—chiefly Pamela Banks, a city council candidate and president of the Urban League, which is involved in administering the program—say the city should double funding for Career Bridge. When Ansel asked the mayor back in July about doubling the funding, Murray responded, "If you want to do your gotcha question, do your gotcha question." OK then.

Parting gifts to outgoing council members: Remember that participatory budgeting idea that retiring Council Member Nick Licata is really into? The mayor agreed to start that effort by letting kids decide how to spend $500,000 of the city's budget next year. (Boston has a similar program.) Council Member Jean Godden is also on her way out and some say she's been pushing for money to have on-site child care at City Hall for city employees. Her office has not responded to multiple requests from The Stranger for more information about this, but considering her focus on gender pay equity, it could be something Murray offers her as a thank you for her three terms on the council. Council Member Tom Rasmussen is also on his way out. It's not clear what he might get out of the mayor's budget, but we sure as hell hope it doesn't have anything to do with his NIMBY-protecting "neighborhood conservation districts" idea.

Funding all those promises Murray made about fighting LGBTQ hate crimes: After a spike in hate crimes against LGBTQ people, especially on Capitol Hill, Murray did his thing and created a task force. After that group finished its work, Murray promised to do a bunch of stuff to fight hate crimes, including improved lighting and the possibility of providing hotel vouchers to homeless transgender youth. But some of the price tags on his promises were still question marks. So, look to see how much money he actually puts behind all that talk. One place where he was specific: something called Project EQTY (Elevating Queer and Trans Youth). While some have called for a homeless shelter specifically for LGBTQ youth, the task force and mayor instead decided on funding for this program, which trains staff at already existing shelters to make sure they're prepared to serve LGBTQ people. Murray promised $40,000 for that effort.

Expanding the Office of Labor Standards: The OLS is a fledgling, shoe-string office that is responsible for educating people about and enforcing the city's massively important labor laws, including the minimum wage. If Murray doesn't expand that office in some way, the council's left flank is likely to try to do it themselves.

Body camera funding: The city announced last week that the Department of Justice will give Seattle police a $600,000 grant to buy body cameras. (A handful of Seattle Police Department officers tested body cameras earlier this year as part of a pilot program.) But, according to the mayor's office, that DOJ grant requires a "50/50 in-kind or cash match." So, we could see the mayor highlight money in SPD's budget to buy cameras or the software used to manage the video.

Parks funding: Remember that parks district you approved to provide new tax dollars for parks? Well, it's finally paying off, parks nerds. In this budget, the mayor will include guidelines for how the city should spend the first year's worth of that money, and we already have some of the details. Murray announced a list of projects earlier this month on which he wants the city to spend about $47 million in parks district money. The biggest chunk of that is for the city's backlog of parks maintenance, but there's also money for improving community centers and youth programs. All the details and dollar amounts are here. And here's a map of all the facilities that will get work.

Arts education: The mayor's budget will include an increase of $400,000 for the city's Office of Arts and Culture to fund arts education in schools, his office announced last week. That money will come from the existing admissions tax charged on ticket sales at entertainment venues. In its announcement about this funding, the mayor's office said arts in schools improve academic results and employment opportunities for at-risk youth. In that same press release, the mayor hinted at another pot of new arts-related money, saying his budget will "provide additional grant funding to support retention of arts and ethnic cultural spaces in our neighborhoods." CLARIFICATION: A spokesperson for the city's Office of Arts and Culture says that $400,000 will cover both arts education and retention of cultural spaces.