The rumor at City Hall is that funding for the $200-million-plus two-way Mercer project—a proposal that has become a major issue for several city council candidates this year—is falling short by between $30 and $50 million. That raises a major question: Should the city council move ahead with the project now, before they know where the extra money will come from, or should they wait until they've actually found a funding source? Nick Licata, a longtime opponent of the project, is likely to point to a 2008 auditor's report suggesting that the city not move forward with major capital projects until funding has been identified and a contingency plan is in place; others on the council will counter that the time to start work on Mercer is now, while construction prices are low.