LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) – Funding for prominent agriculture and conservation efforts in Louisville was slashed in Mayor Craig Greenberg’s city budget plan – a move advocates say would effectively end their programs.
Greenberg’s proposal recommends $30,000 for the Jefferson County Soil and Water Conservation District in the upcoming fiscal year, down from $113,200 last year, and $30,000 for the Jefferson County Extension Office, a decrease from a recent allocation of $335,000.
The Metro Council will begin debating the budget this month before voting on it by late June. Greenberg said in a statement that he is committed to looking at the budget with “fresh eyes and new perspectives each year” in order to move Louisville toward a “safer, stronger and healthier future for everyone.”
His office cited existing soil and water conservation practices in place through the city’s parks department and sustainability office. For example, it said in a statement that Metro government’s urban forestry division, “like the Conservation District,” gives away hundreds of trees per year – an effort that should increase thanks to a $12 million federal grant received last fall.
But officials with the two agencies facing the potential cuts argue that without the city money they won’t be able to continue wide-ranging work that includes nutrition education, soil testing and helping provide “hoop houses” for growing crops year-round.
“There will be no extension office in Jefferson County if this budget goes through,” said Catherine Shake, a farmer who chairs the local extension district board.
The office is one of 120 county agencies affiliated with the University of Kentucky as part of a statewide network that helps farmers and backyard gardeners alike. But Shake said the UK funding only pays staff salaries and doesn’t cover the cost of operating local programs.
She said the office wasn’t notified before the mayor’s budget was released last week, telling WDRB News in an interview that officials there actually had been pushing for more funding to keep pace with inflation.
“We had asked them to consider increasing our budget,” Shake said. “The extension service currently is managing the community gardens for the city of Louisville. And all of that's going to go away.”
The local Soil and Water Conservation District – an agency whose board is elected by Louisville voters – also fears that the proposed funding would make it impossible to continue, said Sarah Beth Sammons, the district’s board chair.
The districts’ roles are outlined in Kentucky law that dates from 1942 and authorizes conservation practices on agricultural lands, controlling soil erosion and preventing water runoff, among other things. The Jefferson County district was created in 1944.
State statute requires the districts to be mainly funded by property taxes or through local fiscal courts, the governing body that exists in most counties. Local appropriations were the funding method chosen when Jefferson County’s district was established, according to a document prepared to defend the district’s budget request.
The district receives other state and federal funds and grants, which are dedicated to certain purposes. “The District relies on Metro Council allocations entirely for its operational expenses,” the document says.
Sammons said district officials have been contacting Metro Council members with their concerns.
“To defund it, it would mean that we couldn't keep our staff. We couldn't keep our current office space. We couldn't fund any of our programs," Sammons said.
Those programs include distributing vouchers that let residents test soil for the presence of lead, providing seeds for cover crops to community gardens and urban farms, covering part of the cost of gardens that increase native habitat and handing out rain barrels.
The mayor's office says other existing programs already part of Metro government include managed meadows in several parks and golf courses. A pollinator/butterfly garden is scheduled to be installed at Charlie Vettiner Park next week, it says.
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