An increasingly frustrated Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins says petty politics and personal crusades by commissioners are hurting his office.

The Commissioners Court has ordered all county departments to slash their budgets by 10 percent. Watkins says he wants a new law requiring a public vote on whether to reduce funding for the DA's office. Currently in Texas, county commissioners have complete control of a DA's budget.

"We're losing our perspective on what we're supposed to do, and that's justice," Watkins said. "We have to have prosecutorial independence. We don't want to be at the whims of the commissioners."

Watkins said he has wanted to remove his office from commissioners' oversight for some time. But he formed the idea for a referendum after, he says, a county official threatened tighter budget control if his office did not rehire two prosecutors who were well-liked by county commissioners.

Watkins said he believes the county official, whom he declined to identify, was sending him a message from a commissioner.

Since taking office two years ago, the Democratic district attorney has repeatedly clashed with commissioners, especially over budget issues.

When told of Watkins' plan to seek legislation, Commissioner John Wiley Price, a fellow Democrat, laughed for several seconds.

"Do you want me to answer now or when I stop laughing?" Price asked.

His only other comment about Watkins' plan: "Oh yeah, right."

Watkins said his top assistant, Terri Moore, spoke to the unidentified county official twice in one day about fired prosecutors Damita Sangermano and Vanita Budhrani White. The official, he said, wanted the DA's office to reconsider the firings. It did not.

Both former prosecutors are well-known to commissioners because their positions involved reducing the jail population, a main goal of the county.

The official, Watkins said, was "without a doubt" asking on behalf of a commissioner.

Moore said last week that she could not recall the exact words the county official used. But after she said that the DA's office alone was responsible for such decisions, Moore said she was told: "Your budget is going to be cut."

She said she then asked the official, "Are you threatening us?" and whether he was "carrying water" for a commissioner.

Moore said the official denied doing either.

Price, who publicly asked Watkins to reconsider Sangermano's firing, said he has never directly or indirectly threatened to withhold money from Watkins' budget.

The DA's office would not comment on why the women were fired, but Sangermano said they were told the office wanted to move in a different direction.

Watkins said circumstances like that are why his office needs more financial independence. His office is working on drafting a bill that, if passed by the Legislature, would ask voters to approve any reduction to the DA's budget.

But in Williamson County, where budget cuts to the DA's office are unlikely, District Attorney John Bradley said such legislation is unnecessary. Prosecutors' budgets need to be reviewed just like any other county department, he said.

"I depend on the democratic process as it currently exists to deal with these issues. I'm confident in their judgment," Bradley said. "I don't think a prosecutor's office is any more or any less important than any other county office."

Bradley did say he would urge commissioners not to make such drastic cuts to prosecutors. He said that most DA's offices around the state have three prosecutors per district court.

Dallas County commissioners have suggested that Watkins cut the number of prosecutors per district court from three to two to save money. But Watkins said doing so would create a logjam in the courts and, eventually, the jail. And that would cost the county even more money.

Commissioner Maurine Dickey, a Republican, called Watkins' idea to hold a referendum on proposed budget cuts "ridiculous."

Dickey and County Judge Jim Foster, a Democrat who said he no longer supports a tax hike to correct the county's $58 million shortfall, said the proposal wouldn't be fair to the other county departments.

"I'm sympathetic toward him. But I don't think the public is going to accept leaving some departments alone and cutting all the others," Dickey said. "Personally, I'm not willing to say, 'You're special.' "

Despite protesting commissioners' plan to trim his $36 million budget by 10 percent and their suggestions that he fire prosecutors to do it, Watkins plans to meet today's deadline to turn in his suggested cuts and revenue increases to the county.

Staff writer Kevin Krause contributed to this report.