Corroon threatens to veto portions of budget

Salt Lake County Mayor Peter Corroon is threatening to veto portions of the 2008 budget, an unprecedented move in his three years in office.

The Salt Lake County Council unanimously approved the $811 million budget Tuesday. But Corroon said the council went too far by adding $3 million to an already shaky general fund, and that could spell a tax increase next year.

"I'm seriously going to think about a veto; that's my intent at this point to do so," Corroon said.

What irked Corroon the most was the $1.3 million the council added to District Attorney Lohra Miller's budget, which would have funded 16 new full-time employees, including four new prosecutors. Miller says her office is overworked and is in desperate need of more staff.

Instead, Corroon offered a last-minute compromise — one that the district attorney agreed to — that would have cut the total increase to about $1 million. The compromise slashed a domestic violence warrant officer, a community prosecution coordinator, a paralegal and a secretary.

The council didn't agree to the compromise, and now the mayor said "it's my intent at this point" to veto. The mayor has 15 days to veto any portion of the $811 million budget.

"My question for our Republican council members is, 'When is enough enough?'" Corroon said. "We're staring a tax increase right in the face for 2009. ... They need to learn some fiscal restraint."

If Corroon is so worried about a tax increase, Republican County Council Chairman Mark Crockett said he could find "$4 million worth of pet projects in the mayor's proposal that we could cut right now then."

"The people care about public safety first. They don't care about all the stupid things he wants to do," Crockett said. "If he wants to veto that in favor of an arborist and putting up fluorescent light bulbs, then he does that at his own peril."

The mayor asked for, and received, millions to boost his environmental agenda. The budget includes money to hire an urban forester, funds to clean up the Jordan River, and money to outfit government buildings with energy-saving lights and other green infrastructure.

Republican Councilman Jeff Allen said he would have made cuts to the $1 million in pork-barrel projects the council added to the budget instead of reducing the district attorney's budget.

Council members added $150,000 for the Tracy Aviary, $500,000 for a bass pond in Taylorsville, $50,000 for the Salt Lake City Marathon and another $50,000 for a golf tournament, just to name a few.