Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, February 15, 1992 TAG: 9202150198
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A6 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: MADELYN ROSENBERG HIGHER EDUCATION WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
EXTENSION SERVICE BATTLES FOR FUNDS
As government organizations across the state struggle to cut 5 percent from their budgets, Virginia Tech's Cooperative Extension Service office is hoping for that same chance.Rest assured, they never thought they'd be saying that.
But because Gov. Douglas Wilder's budget threatens to cut extension's funding by 29 percent, a proposed amendment to reduce that to 5 percent - the same as all higher education agencies are expected to shoulder - would be a major relief.
The amendment, which could restore as much as $9.2 million, is expected to come out of House and Senate committees Sunday.
Asked what chances it had of passing, James Johnson, head of Tech's extension office, just held up his hand. His fingers were crossed.
"No organization should have a totally secure base, but there shouldn't be this kind of insecurity where every cut sends shock waves," Johnson said.
His goal, once the amendment "evens things out," is to see the department become stable.
His help comes in the form of hundreds of grass-roots supporters; people who have used the extension service and want to keep on using it.
Ever since the governor's proposal came out, legislators have been bombarded with letters and phone calls from people who were explaining the importance of the extension - a program which fulfills Tech's mission of public service.
"I've probably received more letters on extension than anything else," said Sen. Madison Marye, D-Shawsville, who sponsored the amendment. On his desk is a stack of about 100. Same for Del. Karen Darner, D-Arlington. On her desk, there are 300.
What would happen if the amendment didn't pass - even in an abridged form?
Johnson closed his eyes for a minute and shook his head.
"That'll be a bad day," he said. "I just want to think positive right now."
If the budget passes as originally written, 175 jobs could be lost. With the 5 percent cut - a best-case scenario here - Johnson hopes no jobs will be lost.
A few agents didn't want to take chances - they quit after the first proposal came out.
"I don't blame them," Johnson said. "I really don't."
Most stayed, though, and some are scared.
Marye said he senses a little more support for extension each day. That could be because of the number of people working to educate all of the legislators, possibly all of Richmond, about their plight.
Frances Graham Trent, a retired extension agent from Roanoke, has written to her own delegates and to a few more for good measure.
"There are hundreds of people involved in this throughout the state," she said. "Even after all of these years, people still come up to me and say, `I was one of your 4-Hers.' That means something."
Trent and others fear the governor's proposal, which sucked money out of some programs and leaked it out of others, came from a lack of understanding of what extension is all about.
"I think right now they still see agriculture as a chicken and a pig and an old tractor," said Carlton Courter, head of the Agribusiness Council. "You can't blame them until you show them a modern dairy farm, and how efficiency and technology has advanced."
There also is the view that the extension service, in these days of computers and satellite dishes, is no longer needed - that the old county agent doesn't have to drive out to the farms.
"But there is still a need for that hands-on service," Courter said."
A more unlikely ally comes in Arlington, unlikely because it's more urban and the value of extension isn't as obvious. But legislators there, too, have been inundated with letters and calls.
It is not rural farmers or homemakers who are penning these letters, but immigrants: Vietnamese, Ethiopians, Koreans; people who have used the extension service to learn American housekeeping, to learn their way around grocery stores and around renting an apartment. Some are written in their native tongues, others in broken English.
The letters also have come from former convicts, women who were taught nutrition while they were in jail so that they could go home and take better care of their families.
And they've come from the master gardeners, who stand to lose the volunteer support program that trains them to beautify their towns and cities.
"Many people feel their lives have been changed by being involved in those programs," Trent said.
"I'm hopeful something can be done. They already went through the original cuts. With these drastic cuts, the whole thing is cut out almost."
Some of Darner's mail has run in favor of tax increases, earmarked for education.
Marye's mail has not. And that concerns him.
"It's one thing to put in an amendment, but the second thing is: Where are you going to get the money?" he asked. "Where are we gonna get the $9 million to fund extension?"
Marye had given his addition to the budget a 50-50 chance of passing.
Darner, one of the three dozen co-sponsors for the amendment, gave it more of a chance, but doubted that all $9.2 million would be restored.
Keywords:
GENERAL ASSEMBLY
Memo: shorter version ran in the Metro edition.