Richmond will have to trim services such as trash pickup and help for the needy if City Council cuts the real estate tax rate, Mayor L. Douglas Wilder said yesterday.

He said the cuts would likely fall disproportionally on districts represented by some of his strongest critics on the council, and he said the council's lack of trust in him and his officials had brought the city to a turning point.

"There are some members of council who believe in district politics whose districts would be disproportionally affected," said Wilder, identifying those districts as Ellen F. Robertson's 6th, Delores L. McQuinn's 7th and Chris A. Hilbert's 3rd.

"No threat at all," he said.

Wilder brushed off criticism of his latest budget's big increases in administrative spending -- a 17 percent increase for the chief administrative officer, a 10 percent increase for the finance department, a 30 percent increase for the press secretary's office and a 9 percent increase for the mayor's office -- by saying the council's spending on itself is rising for no good reason. City spending as a whole will rise 3 percent.

Wilder said he is angry about the council's criticism of his administration.

"The bottom-line question is always, 'What do they do?'" Wilder said during a 75-minute interview yesterday.

"I'm not concerned with tit for tat, quid pro quo. . . . Up to this point we haven't done that. Up to this point. But I'm here to tell you I'm sick and tired of anybody on council demeaning our public servants. . . .

"It's finished. Over. . . . Tell me anytime you've seen any member of council speak to me. . . . Never. But they'll tell you he's this, that and the other, you know why. They're cowards."

In response, Council President William J. Pantele said: "The mayor and council have a fundamental disagreement about the tax burden. We want people to have relief on taxes and utility rate reform. He has a different goal. The rest of the rhetoric is just that."

Asked why spending on city administrative functions was rising faster than spending on social services, the jail, mental-health care and public works, Wilder said the increases were necessary.

Budget director Rayford Harris Jr. added that many of the people recently hired in those support departments came in at higher salaries than had been budgeted, which he had to account for in preparing the new budget.

Harris said the increases also reflect higher gasoline prices.

"We need to be tightening our belts, without compromising services," said Robertson, the council's finance chairwoman. She said she was especially concerned that Wilder was hinting that people in the city's least-wealthy districts might see service cuts.

Wilder spokesman Jon Baliles, meanwhile, said the council's spending on its own staff was ballooning, with three new positions to be added next year.

Wilder said the council doesn't need as much staff as it has.

"Why not put a little trust in what we're doing, and if we're proven to be wrong, then we'll stand up to that and be measured by it," Wilder said.

Contact David Ress at (804) 649-6051 or dress@timesdispatch.com.