City Council member Mike O'Brien asked council transportation chair Tom Rasmussen for a three-week delay on legislation, known as a budget proviso, that would bar Mayor Mike McGinn from spending money on his Transit Master Plan.

O'Brien is seeking the delay in the hope that the council and mayor can spend three weeks working out a deal that makes the limitation unnecessary.  "It doesn't seem to be very likely that the mayo'rs office is going to spend a bunch of money in the next three weeks," O'Brien says.

However, Rasmussen says he doesn't think the council is likely to approve such a delay. "I think he may want to have it delayed three weeks, but we need to have the planing process underway right now," Rasmussen says. "I don't think we want to wait three weeks and if we reach an impasse, pass a proviso" at that point, he says.

Mayor Mike McGinn wants to use the plan, in part, to develop a proposal to extend light rail to Ballard and West Seattle. Rasmussen has said he isn't sure light rail should be funded at the city level.