April 25, 2008 09:54 am
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By DARLENE WAIER
University of Illinois Extension
Many questions have been raised concerning how recently announced decreases in state funding will affect Extension programming in Hamilton, Wayne and White counties.
When responding to these questions, I will first provide a little history about how Extension has been funded in the past.
Extension receives local contributions from businesses, organizations, individuals and county government. For each dollar raised locally, the state usually matches that amount dollar for dollar.
This match is commonly known as County Board Match and is actually a line item in the state budget.
For this fiscal year, the statewide County Board Match line approved in the 2008 budget was $12.8 million.
On April 4, all Extension staff were informed that these funds would not be released. Therefore, Extension offices would lose half of their budget this fiscal year.
Initial estimates are that 450 positions, perhaps more, will be lost throughout the state.
The County Board Match budgeted for the Hamilton-Wayne-White Unit this fiscal year was approximately $175,000 — half of its budget. As county Extension director, I must provide a plan to the state office by May 1 indicating whether the HWW Unit can sustain itself with 50 percent of its funds.
If it can sustain itself, then the plan must include specifically what programming and staffing changes will have to occur in order to sustain itself with only 50 percent of the funds. The plan must also outline how the debt that will be incurred to finish out this fiscal year will be repaid.
I am not at liberty to discuss personnel issues; therefore I cannot discuss what impact it will have on the number of staff in our unit. However, if you own a business or even within household finances, you know that a 50-percent reduction in income is significant and will have significant impact.
For those who have been involved with Extension in the past, I think you would agree that our programs provide a very positive impact within our communities. Four-H, agriculture, family life and the family nutrition programming provided by Extension all supply youth, farmers and families with much-needed, unbiased, research-based education. It will be a tremendous challenge to determine how to sustain these programming efforts in our unit with a 50-percent reduction in income.
In the meantime, I would like to thank all the local financial supporters of Extension and encourage their continued support. Without local support, we would not be able to continue any programming at this time.
The plans developed on a local basis must be approved at the regional and state level. Information concerning the final plan for all Extension units in the state will be communicated by the state and will not necessarily be known by local staff until sometime late this summer.
• Darlene Waier is the county Extension director for the Hamilton-Wayne-White Unit.
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