Wilder administration officials this morning are refusing to say whether Richmond's city government is operating under the mayor's budget or a competing City Council version.

"It is what it is," said Linwood Norman, a spokesman for Mayor L. Douglas Wilder, when asked whether Wilder's budget -- which included $3 million of mainly administrative and procurement spending that City Council cut -- is in effect.

Norman repeated an earlier statement that the mayor has said all he is going to say on the subject.

Meanwhile, the city's retirement system said it will go ahead and pay a 1.5 percent cost of living adjustment for retirees that the council voted and that was not in the mayor's budget.

"The city attorney has rendered an opinion which rendered the City Council's adopted budget as valid and lawful," said Richmond Retirement System Executive Director Philip Langham.

Langham said that based upon the advice of the Retirement System Board of Trustees' legal advisor and the city attorney, the agency is obligated to obey the council action authorizing the 1.5 percent cost-of-living adjustment for retirees this year.

Wilder has said the council budget was invalid because two measures required to balance it were not enacted before a May 31 deadline. The council and the city attorney said the council passed a balanced budget and that the two measures involved spending cuts for the just-completed fiscal year rather than revenue for the fiscal year that started today.

Council members believe the mayor's budget is out of balance because it does not reflect a cut in the city's real estate tax rate that the council enacted.