1. Mayor Greg Nickels will announce his final proposed budget this afternoon at 2:00, including a plan for financing the city's $930 million portion of the deep-bore waterfront tunnel. There's also a rumor that Joe Mallahan, one of two candidates who defeated Nickels in the primary, will announce his own viaduct financing proposal soon.

2. Cindi Laws, campaign manager for city attorney Tom Carr, responded to an item in yesterday's Morning Fizz noting that Carr (in sharp contrast to the mayor) had only received one contribution from an employee at his office—$650 from civil division head Suzanne Skinner.

Laws noted that it's against the law for candidates to solicit money from their employees. True. (Nickels' employees gave generously anyway). Second, she said, "It has been city policy, going back three or four city attorneys, specifically to ask the people in the office not to contribute to the campaign because they did not want to create a situation where the lawyers there, or any other employees of the city attorney's office, felt that they had to contribute as a condition of their employment ... To imply that Tom doesn't have the support of his employees is just a cheap shot at best."

Carr was elected in 2001. Unfortunately, detailed city election records don't go back past 2003. City records go back online until 1996. In 2001, when he first ran for election, Carr received $1,094 from city of Seattle employees. In 2005, he received $650 from one city employee, R.B. Vincent. In 1997, Carr's predecessor, Mark Sidran, reported no contributions from city employees.

3. The Seattle Municipal League released its ratings for candidates for King County Assessor earlier this week. (Ratings for candidates in other races, released earlier this year, can be found here).

Interestingly, of the two leading contenders, newcomer Bob Rosenberger, a real estate investor and former appraiser who just got into the race last month, against Port Commissioner Lloyd Hara, was rated "very good"; Hara, just "good."

4. Saroja Reddy and Ellen Petre, the two county council employees who were given their walking papers by County Council member and King County Executive candidate Dow Constantine earlier this week, will spend the rest of the year doing "special assignments" from home. Translation: They'll be paid to stay at home.

Still sounds like a raw deal. As we wrote yesterday , Reddy (we don't know Petre) is a competent, professional policy staff director (she held a similar, but less politically charged, position at City Hall) who found out she was losing her job five minutes before the county council voted to terminate her.

5. This weekend is the annual Sustainable Ballard Festival, featuring a green fashion show, a demonstration "urban farm," and a two-hour bike tour of the neighborhood's "chicken coops, shared gardens, P-Patches, rain barrels, green buildings, cider presses, art, and more." All free; more info here.

6. PubliCola was hopping late in the day yesterday. If you left work early and missed all the action, check it out: Posts on Mallahan spokeswoman Charla Neuman's denial that her candidate opposes the commercial parking tax (including a lively comments thread); allegations by KC Executive candidate Susan Hutchison that rival Constantine's campaign may have engaged in "illegal" campaign activity; city council member Nick Licata on why he  won't be supporting Carr; and more.