After teasing us for over a week (such a tease!), Seattle Mayor Ed Murray on Monday finally unveiled his 2015-2016 proposed budget.

In prepared remarks delivered to the City Council and distributed to the press almost simultaneously, Murray said Seattle “faces a paradox,” asserting that “We are now the fasting growing city in America. And yet, the City budget is not keeping pace with existing demand for services.” The mayor outlined what he referred to as the four “principles” of his budget, “more transparency, more innovation, better organization, and better performance.”

Harping on a need for reforms and efficiencies, the mayor had many harsh words for the city’s current budget process. “We will move toward a performance-based budgeting system and begin paying for outcomes,” the mayor promised. “This will lead to streamlining of services, better use of resources and greater performance from our departments. And, perhaps most importantly, it will drive better service for the people of Seattle.”

In a press release the mayor’s office provided a itemized list of Murray’s proposed reforms, included below:

· moving City departments to a standard accounting system;

· conducting a zero-based budgeting exercise for a least two City departments for a better accounting of baseline expenditures;

· launching an interactive, online “Open Budget” tool on the model of the City of Boston’s tool for greater transparency in City spending;

· developing performance metrics for all City departments for more efficiency and accountability;

· launching an online dashboard to track department performance and provide greater transparency and accountability; and

· establishing an advisory committee on the model of the state’s Economic and Revenue Forecast Council to provide greater transparency and better performance.

In terms of spending, Murray told the City Council that Seattle can be “an incubator of change” and “a laboratory of democracy” by funding “bold policy experimentation,” including his proposed Office of Labor Standards and Department of Early Learning and Education. The mayor also highlighted a proposal for what’s being called the “Ready For Work” program via the Office of Immigrant and Refuge Affairs, and a new environmental equity initiative in the Office of Sustainability and Environment.

You can find a full rundown of Murray’s budget proposal here. It’s fairly exhaustive.

With a hat tip to FDR, Murray closed his remarks with an inspirational note for the Council that will ultimately approve or reject his budget proposal.

“Councilmembers, as we move through this budget process, let us not be afraid to engage in bold experimentation to tackle our challenges together,” the mayor said.

Speaking of bold experimentation, Nick Licata dropped this hot video shortly after Murray’s budget was officially transmitted to the City Council, highlighting what comes next. “I look forward to examining the Mayor’s proposed budget, keeping in mind the highest priorities the Council expressed in a letter to the Mayor in early August: human services, public safety and transportation,” Licata said in a statement distributed to the media. “Those priorities were informed by a series of community meetings I hosted earlier this year.”

The City Council will start the budget review process Oct. 2 and is expected to adopt 2015’s spending plan by Nov. 24.