Corroon proposes big cuts in budget

Salt Lake County homeowners, along with some 4,000 county employees, will help bear the brunt of an epic downsizing of county-government costs proposed Tuesday by Mayor Peter Corroon.

Homeowners will be asked to pony up an additional $20 annually in property-tax payments for a $260,000 home, while county employees are scheduled for a 2.75 percent salary cut on top of already reduced benefits and an upcoming increase in health insurance. The salary cuts and new tax are part of a 2010 budget package that includes some $164 million in reductions.

Corroon, whose decision to include the tax increase reverses a veto he levied on a council-supported property-tax hike earlier this year, said the decision was not an easy one to make.

"I recognize the burden this may place on some and don't recommend it lightly," he said. "But there are essential services that I am unwilling to cut and which must be protected in good times and bad."

Those protections, Corroon said, include avoiding reductions of law enforcement officers, keeping Oxbow Jail open, maintaining services to seniors in need and continuing to offer help to at-risk youth.

What did not escape the budget scalpel was virtually every sector under the county's purview, with cuts being applied to 275 individual programs in 14 departments.

While the cuts are deep — a trim down from last year's operations costs of $801 million to this year's proposed $638 million — what's missing may not be readily apparent.

Almost all departments have lost or will be losing staff. However, county fiscal officers said efforts to cross-train and re-purpose employees, combined with finding new efficiencies, have precluded the need to eliminate existing jobs.

Residents who utilize county recreational facilities will see some changes as some smaller rec centers will be closed on Sundays and county-operated swimming pools will shorten their season by two weeks.

Corroon trimmed the budget in his office by more than 10 percent through unfilled positions and more than $400,000 in operational cuts.

A hiring freeze, first enacted in November of last year, is ongoing and has led to an across-the-board reduction in employee rolls. The program, in addition to early retirement incentives, has led to a reduction of more than 100 full-time positions.