MSUE office faces closure if governor vetoes funding
by Peter Jakey, Managing Editor
Michigan State University (MSU) — the nation?s first land grant school ? could be forced to scrap its agricultural research projects, its county Extension services and its College of Agriculture and Natural Resources if funding reductions made in the state?s interim budget are adopted in the 2010 budget due to be completed this week. MSU Extension (MSUE) has valued a partnership with the county, state and federal government for 86 years, wrote Presque Isle County extension director Cheryl Peters in an e-mail last Friday to ?community leaders.?
The concern came at the beginning of the month when funding to the university was appropriated, but didn?t include money for the university?s agricultural station and MSUE. ON GOV. Jennifer Granholm?s desk is the bill for higher education with the threat of a line item veto to eliminate funding.
If that were to occur, ?MSUE will be forced to cancel all county and campus based programs and meetings immediately and until further notice,? said Peters. Programs coming to a halt would include: all 4-H club operations; all educational workshops across all program areas; oversight of any county grant activity led by MSUE. Peters said the message is to prevent the veto. She wants stakeholders to contact the governor?s office and her leadership team to make the point that these programs are critical to the county, she said.
If a veto takes place, a campaign for a difficult override vote will be undertaken. A two-thirds majority vote would be needed in
?WE WOULD have to reduce staff by at least this percentage across the state, and greatly reduce programming to a very limited focus,? said Peters. ?This would become the base budget for future years. We would likely lose additional positions because so many of our staff positions are funded by matching funds, and a loss of state funds will jeopardize the matching funds.? There were threats to cut or eliminate funding to MSUE by the Granholm administration in 2003.
?There have been a lot of efforts by MSU to involve the governor?s office on what MSU does, beyond farming,? said Peters. Presque Isle County?s office employs seven people. Thomas G. Coon, professor and director of MSUE in Lansing, said ?Agriculture is the one bright spot in the Michigan economy, contributing $71.3 billion annually with the potential to grow because of bio?energy and related bio?industry growth.? Agricultural experiments brought $1.06 billion to the state.