Ficano: Prosecutor's Office Cuts Necessary
DETROIT (WWJ) - A Wayne County judge will hear final arguments on Friday in a lawsuit from prosecutor Kym Worthy who alleges County Executive Robert Ficano reneged on a written deal to spare Worthy's department from further cuts.
Worthy claims her fiscal year budget fell nearly $7 million. She said the cuts would be devastating, spiking crime in the area and forcing her to layoff about half of her staff.
Talking to WWJ Newsradio 950, Ficano said that revenues are projected over a period of time and it's actually the Board of Commissioners who ultimately set the budgets for each department in the county.
Ficano said the caseload in the county has dropped 30 percent in the last three to five years.
"We've maintained her budget the same the past couple of years, but we can't sustain that anymore," Ficano said. "You know, the tax revenues had just gone down. We lost $105 million in five years because of property tax values dropping."
Ficano said the county is like a family, but desperate times call for desperate measures.
