Alvarez, Preckwinkle Spar Over Budget Cuts
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Sparks wre flying Tuesday afternoon at the Cook County Board, over the size of budget cuts in the Cook County State's Attorneys' office.
Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez presented a budget plan that called on cutting 180 jobs at her office -- including 50 prosecutors -- and leaving 20 other positions vacant, in order to achieve a 10 percent budget cut requested by Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle.
"The proposed cuts ... will have a serious and detrimental impact on the prosecution of criminal cases in Cook County," Alvarez said in a written statement earlier in the day. "The cuts, as currently proposed, will result in the elimination of Cook County prosecutors and investigators as well as sizable portions of the State's Attorney's Civil Actions Bureau."
As WBBM Newsradio 780's John Cody reports, Alvarez said the county should cut elsewhere, because her department has already been cut to the bone.
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Alvarez told board members that reductions in legal services for children who've been abused or neglected would be devastating. And said the county-wide cuts are being measured with a "cookie cutter" approach.
As CBS 2's Roseanne Tellez reports, county board members expressed surprise, saying Preckwinkle had told them there was an agreement in place in which not a single attorney would be laid off.
Preckwinkle claimed she had a deal with Alvarez to cut 10 percent from the State's Attorney's office budget without laying off any prosecutors. Other departments had asked to cut 16 percent from their budgets, except the Sheriff's office, which is cutting 12 percent.
"She has the lowest cuts of anyone, so the idea that she's suggesting that we have a cookie cutter approach is ridiculous," Preckwinkle said. " I am frustrated, yes."
Alvarez said there was no such deal.
"I told her I would try to meet that, but that I wasn't optimistic and at this point, I am not there," Alvarez said.
Preckwinkle has laid out a $3.1 billion plan for Cook County government, which includes the State's Attorney's office, the Cook County Sheriff's office and the county's public hospital system.
Her plan calls for at least 1,075 layoffs on a county payroll that counts 23,700 employees, refinancing the county's debt and more aggressively going after unpaid taxes, including from businesses that are not paying county cigarette taxes.
When she took office, Preckwinkle called on all county departments and other countywide elected officials to cut their budgets by 16 percent. But Alvarez and Preckwinkle later agreed to a 10 percent cut for Alvarez's office.
Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart also balked at cutting his budget by 16 percent and, ultimately, he and Preckwinkle compromised on a 12 percent budget cut for the sheriff's office.
