Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 10, 1993 TAG: 9302100128
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: MADELYN ROSENBERG STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
TECH MAINTAINS HOPE FOR FUNDS FOR HORSE CENTER
You don't have to be an oddsmaker in Vegas to know that the General Assembly is going to restore some money to the Virginia Tech Extension Service this year.But it looks like a longer shot for Tech's Equine Medical Center in Leesburg to get all the dollars it needs from the legislature.
Tech put in a $1 million request for the center, that in recent years has helped train veterinary students as well as provide a surgical facility for horses. But the bill never made it out of the House; a Senate committee set funding at $300,000.
"We'll be working on it," said Peter Eyre, dean of the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine. "If we were to get $300,000, it would be $300,000 we didn't have last year."
The bill to restore $3.4 million to the extension service, however, drew every senator as a sponsor. All but one of the representatives signed on in the House of Delegates, so that bill is sure to pass in some form.
Still, Tech officials aren't taking anything for granted.
They say they need every penny of the $3.4 million amendment to maintain the programs they have now.
And they fear that to legislators working with a budget in the billions, a 0.2 million here or a 0.4 million there might not seem such a big deal.
"If we lost anything, we'd have to make some choices," said Bill Allen, interim head of the extension office.
Tech President James McComas added: "It would be disastrous."
The state originally had cut the extension budget for 1992-94 by $12.2 million.
Tech got back $3.2 million last year but was not guaranteed how much would be restored this year. If the extension service receives the full $3.4 million this year, its cuts will be the same as budget cuts to other state agencies.
If, in a worst-case scenario, the extension service received no money, it would mean layoffs, perhaps as many as 50.
But with all of the support, it is highly unlikely that would be the result.
"We're very much encouraged by what was reported out of committee," Allen said.
Still, the extension office has lost nearly 20 percent of its resources over the past three years. During this period of budget cuts, supporters mounted a major education campaign, letting legislators know just what the extension service did.
Del. Joan Munford, D-Blacksburg, and Sen. Madison Marye, D-Shawsville, received notes from master gardeners and home economists, from 4-H organizers and club members.
Paul Mitchem, aide to Munford, said he sees no problem getting the bill through "as is," especially since identical bills were introduced and reported out of committees on both sides of the legislature.
"It's looking as well as we could have hoped it to look at this point," Allen said. "But the process isn't over until the governor signs it," he said.
Wayne Ashworth, president of the Virginia Farm Bureau, an organization representing farmers in the state, said his group has lobbied hard for extension ever since state revenues came up short three years ago.
Ashworth's group also has been keeping tabs on the equine amendment, though not as closely.
Extension was first on Tech's legislative agenda this year. The medical center was second.
Mitchem said Tuesday that funding for the equine center was "alive but gasping." At Tech, Eyre remains hopeful.
"Obviously if we get less than we asked for we get to do less things," he said. "But this would be new money and it's bound to boost some programs at the center."
The center receives a mix of funding from both the state and the private sector.
Jeffrey Douglas, college information officer, describes the center as "a Mayo Clinic for horses."
As the state develops parimutuel racing, Douglas said, the equine center could become more important to Virginia.