County budget: Local program endangered by 1 cut’s side effect?

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Later today, the King County Council is scheduled to adopt the county’s 2010 budget. One component of the most recent budget revisions could endanger programs the county doesn’t even pay for, according to a rep for the King County Food and Fitness Initiative – they explain that the county budget calls for the complete severing of King County’s ties to the Extension program (which also involves Washington State University), because the small amount of remaining funding was cut completely. (Originally, the budget called for 84% less funding than the year before – leaving about $100,000 – but that was cut late last week.) They explain that if Extension is left with NO financial relationship with King County, they will lose a $1.2 million grant just offered to the Food and Fitness Initiative (which has been sponsoring programs in West Seattle and White Center), and they will be unable to offer even volunteer-run programs such as Master Gardener and 4-H. They say even a tiny amount of funding will keep the county’s Extension ties alive and allow them to continue pursuing outside grants. So they’re asking for support in hopes the budget will be amended before this afternoon’s scheduled final vote by the council, whose contact information is here.

Nancy F, November 23, 2009 (10:17 am)

Here’s what I wrote each council member:

I’m writing to urge the King County council to continue at least a minimal tie to the Extension Program. As I understand from the West Seattle Blog coverage (https://westseattleblog.com/blog/?p=22586), severing all ties will lose funding to many worthy projects, including the just-awarded, much needed King Count Food & Fitness initiative. The Delridge Neighborhood Development Assoc. has worked hard for the past two years to develop sustainable projects and were just awarded 1.2 million grant. It appears an apparent savings of a relatively small amount of money now, will cost many times more.

Thank you for considering the effect this budget cut may have beyond the direct amount.

Holli November 23, 2009 (10:17 am)

I wasn’t aware that the KCFFI supported the Master Gardener and 4-H programs. I suppose I could just email the KCFFI folks, but perhaps my questions are shared:

– What other programs does the KCFFI fund?
– How much in matching funds are needed to keep the Kellogg Grant? I thought that the Kellogg Grant was independent of other funding. Also, I thought that the grant was awarded a few years ago, though the initial amount has decreased.

Thanks for posting this – I do believe it is important to fund things like 4-H, Master Gardeners and others.

WSB November 23, 2009 (10:28 am)

Holli – forgive me if my prose was murky in the wee hours – KCFFI doesn’t fund those programs but if the county has NO financial relationship to the Extension, apparently the whole concept of a King County Extension, which also is the associated organization for Master Gardener, etc., has to go away – according to the person I talked with – even though those don’t draw money FROM the county – which leads me to wonder if this was an unintended side effect … I had messages out late Friday to Dow Constantine and staff asking about this but hadn’t heard back … TR

Holli November 23, 2009 (10:42 am)

TR – Thank you for clarifying.

I was just thinking that if we knew exactly what was going to be cut, more people would feel compelled to action – for example, if it was something they’d participated with or had been directly involved.

Jana November 23, 2009 (4:34 pm)

Yes, if there is no King County support for WSU Extension then ALL WSU Extension programs will lose all support from WSU and in most cases be eliminated. I am a King County Master Gardener and we have begged the county to at least support with $1 (which I offered to donate to the county) so that Master Gardeners, 4H, Food-Sense, and all of the other worthwhile Extension programs won’t be eliminated. No King County Support means NO WSU Extension support due to the way Extension was created. SUCKS but it is true!

Maureen November 23, 2009 (10:48 pm)

This unfortunately is a case of “penny wise, pound foolish” except the pennies saved total $100,000 and the loss is hundreds and hundreds of dollars. The Extension program has a rule that if there is NO county money, then the land grant university (WSU) may not provide any support to that county through ANY program. Several other small counties have experienced this, but no county as large as King County. The County Council was told this would be the impact. Either they didn’t listen or thought it wouldn’t happen. WSU was quite clear about the impact months ago. All of the grant money that came through or was administered by Extension will be gone, along with the staff and the programs. The County Council is throwing away hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars. And all of King County will suffer. Any one know how they voted?

WSB November 23, 2009 (11:12 pm)

They passed the budget, but I have sent two messages at different accounts to my original source on this asking if there was something worked out – and I have no reply. I tried searching the “adopted budget” document but the word “extension” did not appear in this context in its 132 pages. If nothing comes in by midmorning I’ll make some more calls … TR

Brad November 24, 2009 (9:06 am)

The King County Council passed the budget with an amendment instructing the Executive to work with WSU Extension to find a way to maintain the relationship but allocated no money. In addition, out-going Executive Triplett sent over a 4th quarter 2009 budget amendment to restore the $109,000 for 4-H. This will be taken up by the Council in mid December

So, technically this does not save WSU King County Extension, but it does leave an opening.

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