LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) – The budget plan awaiting a vote from Metro Council spares the deep cuts initially proposed for two agricultural agencies, but it doesn’t restore their full funding.
Mayor Craig Greenberg’s recommended budget from April included $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 $335,000.
That prompted a backlash from those agencies and their supporters, who argued that the cuts would threaten services ranging from soil testing to nutrition education.
The spending plan scheduled for a vote Thursday provides last year’s funding for the conservation district, an elected board, but just $182,500 for the University of Kentucky-affiliated extension office.
“We're always making tradeoffs, and so tradeoffs were made here,” Metro Council member Ben Reno-Weber (D-8th District) said Tuesday. “I think we got a lot. It is not everything that I hoped it would be, as is true of most of the budget.”
Reno-Weber, who also serves on the budget committee, suggested that more funding could be added when the council makes adjustments during the fiscal year, which starts July 1.
“This is one of those things where I hope we can find alternative sources of funding, and I’m certainly going to be working with them to help them do that,” he said. “And now we need to make a really strong case this year for why this is such important work in our community.”
For his part, Greenberg said: “I fully support the amended budget.”
The partial funding for the extension office caught leaders there off guard. “That’s news to me,” Catherine Shake, chair of the local extension district board, told a reporter who called seeking comment.
Shake said her understanding from talks with Metro Council members was that the full funding had been restored. If the city budget passes with the current allocation – slightly more than half what the agency got last year – she said the office likely would be forced to let some employees go.
“It’s very sad for the people of Jefferson County who have fought for the support they need for agriculture,” she said.
The office is one of 120 county agencies connected with UK that aid farmers, gardeners and others across the state. It does get some university funding, but Shake previously told WDRB News that that money only pays staff salaries and doesn’t go toward local programs.
If approved, the budget would require both agencies to give file quarterly reports to Metro Council on “cash flow, expenditures and accomplishments. Additionally, no service can be given without cost to any non-Metro resident.”
Sarah Beth Sammons, the soil and water conservation district’s board chair, did not immediately respond to a text message seeking comment.
Sammons previously said that the funding initially included in the mayor’s budget request would make it impossible to continue. “To defund it, it would mean that we couldn't keep our staff,” she told WDRB in May. “We couldn't keep our current office space. We couldn't fund any of our programs.”
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.
This story may be updated.
Copyright 2024 WDRB Media. All rights reserved.
