Richmond's new fiscal year starts today, but it has two competing budgets -- Mayor L. Douglas Wilder's and the City Council's -- and an unanswered question.

The city's finance officials can't cut checks unless a budget -- one budget, that is -- is loaded into their computers.

But which one?

"The mayor has said everything he has had to say on the subject," press secretary Linwood Norman said yesterday, when asked if a budget has been loaded.

The mayor said last month that the City Council budget was invalid because the council did not meet the legal deadline for completing a balanced budget.

"I think we'll just have to see," said Council President William J. Pantele. "We will do what we have to do."

It will take officials just a few strokes on their computer keyboards to be sure: Will the city plan to spend $658 million as the mayor proposed or the $655 million the council planned? Will computer screens show the council's $1.6 million in savings from changes in purchasing practices recommended by the city auditor? Will the $100,200 that the council cut for car allowances for top officials be there?

Wilder said the council's cuts are not valid because two key sources of revenue in its budget were not formally approved until after the May 31 deadline for passing a balanced budget.

City Attorney Norman Sales said the mayor's interpretation is wrong because the money at stake isn't revenue for the new fiscal year but spending cuts from the one that just ended.

The effect of the spending cuts was to increase the estimated amount of money the city should have in its bank accounts as of June 30, and that increased figure was used in the budget the council passed on May 31, making for a valid, balanced budget, Sales said.

Several council members said they expect to go to court if the Wilder administration has implemented the mayor's budget.

"This is the fourth budget I've been through with this administration," said Pantele, who is running for mayor. "And we've never gone through without a lot of politics and extreme statements, and it's really too bad."
Contact David Ress at (804) 649-6051 or dress@timesdispatch.com.