North Highline shown in dark pink.Seattle City Council voted 5-3 this afternoon to keep Mayor Nickels’ bid for annexing North Highline on the table. The 6-square miles of unincorporated King County, south of West Seattle includes White Center, and is also being courted by Burien. Voting no were council members Peter Steinbrueck, Jan Drago and Tom Rasmussen. The Urban Development and Planning Committee (chaired by Steinbrueck and co-chaired by Rasmussen) earlier recommended putting the annexation effort to rest, but they were overturned today by members Sally Clark, Richard Conlin, Nick Licata, Jean Godden and David Della who opted to give Nickels at least one more shot to secure the needed funding from Olympia. (Richard McIver wasn’t present for the vote.)Dismissal by the council today may have meant curtains for the effort, one that Nickels counts as a cornerstone of his waning second term. The mayor’s office has already been laying the groundwork for another run at lobbying the legislature for a sales tax credit needed to make the annexation pencil. But getting it is going to be one tall order. The session in Olympia– which begins Jan.14– is only 60 days, and lawmakers, including Ways and Means chair Margarita Prentice, likely won’t have much appetite for spending. (She killed the city’s effort last year by not scheduling a hearing for the bill.)