CALIFORNIA BRIEFING / SANTA ANA

Orange County officials Tuesday approved a budget that stripped $1.2 billion -- about 405 positions -- from the county budget for the fiscal year that begins in July.

Coming off a year of declining tax revenue and increasing retirement costs, county supervisors pieced together a $5.5-billion budget -- a decrease of about 18% from last year.

In deliberations, county executives and elected officials were asked to take a 5% pay cut as part of the effort to save the county some cash.

County supervisors also slashed the district attorney’s budget by about $8 million compared with last year’s budget.

The Sheriff’s Department was cut by $28 million, what Sheriff Sandra Hutchens called “unprecedented funding reductions.”

She warned that the cuts would be tough on criminal investigators and cause problems for the jails.

Because of cuts to the department, Hutchens will have to eliminate about 50 positions and close one floor of the Women’s Central Jail.

The Sheriff’s Department is hoping to cut back on overtime pay to save costs further, said John McDonald, a spokesman for the Sheriff’s Department.

-- My-Thuan Tran