Corroon refuses to budge on Salt Lake County budget

Salt Lake County Mayor Peter Corroon won't budge on the 2008 budget.

If the County Council doesn't cut at least three or four positions from the district attorney's budget by next week, Corroon said he will use a line-item veto — a first in his administration.

"You can't ask for the moon every year and expect us to be able to give huge budget increases without raising taxes," Corroon told the Deseret Morning News on Tuesday. "I hope it works out where we are all equally happy or all equally unhappy, but I think the council and district attorney can gain more by a compromise than a veto."

Corroon's financial stand came on the same day the district attorney's office issued a legal opinion explaining how far the mayor's veto power reaches.

But for now, Corroon and Republicans on the County Council are trying to avoid the veto altogether.

On Tuesday, the Republicans appointed two of their members to negotiate with the mayor, a Democrat, to "see if there is common ground.

"I don't know if we'll be able to find it, but I'm always willing to keep an open mind," Councilman Michael Jensen said. "At the end of the day, do we find common ground? I don't know right now."

Both sides are at odds since Corroon said the council went too far by adding $1.3 million 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.

He said the 10 percent increase to her budget as compared to last year will put the county at financial odds in 2009 and require a tax increase.

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.

Other elected officials also agreed to cut their budgets as part of the compromise, and the council agreed to those changes — just not the changes to the district attorney's budget. (The compromise was voted down along party lines, with Republicans backing the Republican Miller's finance plan.)

Republicans David Wilde and Mark Crockett met with Corroon on Tuesday, but "they haven't offered anything yet," Corroon said. A compromise must be reached by next Wednesday, the last day Corroon can use his line-item veto power.