Pittsburgh City Council members threatened Thursday to throw the book at Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl's administration for erasing a $1 million allocation for the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh without legislative approval.

The administration countered that the allocation should have been nixed from the budget last year. A library official, meanwhile, said the system is counting on receiving two payments of $600,000 from the city - news that prompted city Finance Director Scott Kunka to suggest that they "tighten their own belts."

There's no dispute that the city last year promised the library system $600,000 as part of a package meant to forestall the closure of four branches and the merger of two others. A contract releasing that money is moving through the city bureaucracy.

The confusion stems from a November pledge by Council President Doug Shields to provide an additional $600,000, combined with Mr. Ravenstahl's proposal that same month to give the system $1 million if council approved a tuition tax.

Though the failed tuition tax was eventually removed from city's budget, the $1 million line item for the libraries was not. The budget passed and was signed by the mayor, with the library funding on page 277.

On Jan. 22, though, someone went into the city accounting system and deleted the funds.

"The entire code account for the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh has disappeared," said Council Finance Chair William Peduto, who questioned the legality of the change. "City code requires any budget amendments to be made by council. It cannot be done by a bureaucrat or the mayor."

Mr. Kunka said that eliminating the funds was "a typographical error" and it should not have been done until after the administration submits the annual raft of budget corrections, which is coming soon.

He added that the allocation was contingent on the tuition tax passing, and since it didn't, there's no $1 million, nor any source for a second $600,000 payment.

"I think the library is crying poor," he said, "when they have additional money" coming through state table games legislation that should eventually bring the system around $750,000 a year.

Carnegie Library Director of Communication Trina Walker said the system's 2010 budget of $24.2 million depends on a second city payment of $600,000.

"That $600,000 is going to the library," said Councilman Bruce Kraus, a library trustee. He said he may introduce legislation Tuesday that would clarify the commitment to the second payment. A printout of the Jan. 22 deletion, he said, "isn't worth the paper it's printed on."

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