Mercury News: Santa Clara County eases proposed budget cuts to district attorney, public defender offices
SAN JOSE — Santa Clara County is reducing prospective budget cuts for the district attorney’s and public defender’s offices after their top leaders forewarned of severe public safety impacts in the South Bay.
In the county’s newest budget revision released last week, administrators are walking back the elimination of 20 criminal investigators in the DA’s office, restoring all but two positions in the division. The public defender’s office would see three criminal-investigator positions restored from a budget proposal released at the beginning of May.
Even then, both agencies will have to shoulder layoffs and attrition — making total cuts in the area of five to seven percent of each office’s budget — to help the county fill an estimated $250 million deficit for the 2024-2025 fiscal year. But after the last update, only one of the offices’ leaders said they were left feeling as if they have enough to push through what looks to be a multi-year span of tight budgets.