With three months left, Richmond City Council approves current year’s budget

Richmond finally has a budget on which the mayor and the City Council can agree.

The council voted 9-0 last night to approve Mayor Dwight C. Jones' substitute budget for fiscal 2008-2009, ending a 10-month dispute between the council and former Mayor L. Douglas Wilder.

"It's late, but it's not too late," Jones said, referring to the newly adopted $655.3 million spending plan.

The budget reflects some -- but not all -- of the priorities endorsed last May when the council adopted a $655.1 million budget. Wilder later declared that plan invalid and installed the $658.1 million budget that he had proposed.

Among the council-favored items included in the new budget are $390,000 to cover the city's contribution to the Greater Richmond Partnership, $2 million for storm-water and drainage system improvements and $1.4 million for a 1.5 percent cost-of-living increase for retirees' pensions that will apply retroactively to Jan. 1.

However, council members learned yesterday that the new budget will need to be amended next month to provide an additional $1.4 million from the reserve fund to fully cover the pension increase's $2.7 million cost.

Jones called the new budget a compromise between the council's plan and a series of amendments that were offered by Wilder in an attempt to resolve his dispute with the council. That plan was never brought to a vote by council.

With last night's action, the council dropped deep cuts that members had sought for the offices of the mayor, the press secretary and the chief administrative officer.

The new budget is based in part on departmental budgets that were proposed by Wilder but applies a 1 percent cut across the board, excluding police, fire and social services. Wilder had offered such a cut in his proposed amendments.

While operating under the budget Wilder had enacted, the city has been reining in spending in response to the economic downturn, with a freeze on hiring and delays in purchases. Council members have not raised concerns about keeping expenses within the newly approved budget.

Council President Kathy C. Graziano said there was little point in continuing to seek the cuts to the mayor's office, press secretary and chief administrative officer with a little more than three months left in the budget year.

"We need to move on," she said.

"At this point, there's no hope [for those cuts,]" Councilman Bruce W. Tyler added, "but next year's budget is a different discussion."

Jones will outline his proposed budget for fiscal 2009-2010 on Thursday.

Contact Will Jones at (804) 649-6911 or .