By KEVIN WALKER
Michigan Correspondent
 
LANSING, Mich. — Gov. Jennifer Granholm late last week revealed details of a plan to help balance the state’s budget for fiscal year 2010, which includes a number of drastic cuts to agricultural interests.

These include combining the Michigan State University Cooperative Extension Service with the Michigan Agricultural Experiment Station (MAES), along with a 50 percent cut for those combined functions. It also includes elimination of any state support for the state fair in Detroit as well as the state fair in the Upper Peninsula, and elimination of supplemental financial support for the horse racing industry.

Current funding for the MAES and extension is $60 million, according to Steven Pueppke, director of the MAES and assistant vice president for graduate studies at MSU. In addition to combining these offices, the governor is proposing to fund them at $32 million starting in the 2010 fiscal year.

“Our position would be that agriculture is an increasingly important activity in the state and it’s growing at a time when other sectors of the economy are shrinking, most notably the auto industry,” Pueppke said. “We’ve added a lot of projects that really answer questions that relate to how to produce biomass for renewable fuel. The proposed funding would cripple our ability to do this.”

Granholm is also proposing to combine the Project GREEEN as well as the Animal Agricultural Initiative – both of which are located at MSU – under the same umbrella as the MAES, which according to Pueppke would further reduce overall funding for these activities.
He said it’s early in the process toward a final budget, and his office will seek to tell the story of how vital agriculture is to the state.
Steven Jenkins, general manager of the state fair, said the proposed elimination of the state subsidy for the fairs is largely symbolic. The fairs have been subsidized an average of $144,500 for each of the past five years, he said.

“We’ve reduced expenditures (at the fair office) 22 percent recently,” he said. “We thought the elements were in place to provide for year-round use at the fairgrounds.”

In an interview from two weeks ago Liz Boyd, press secretary for Granholm, said the governor was holding talks of an undetermined nature with people who are interested in saving the fair.
When told this last week, however, Jenkins said he was unaware of any such discussions.

What the governor would like to do, according to Jenkins, is to lease or develop the land in Detroit that’s been used as the state’s fairgrounds for more than 100 years.

Overall, the governor is proposing $670 million in reductions in state spending.

Specifically, in addition to the above cuts, Granholm is recommending a 20 percent reduction in funding for the Department of Agriculture, which would amount to about $21 million altogether. The cuts would affect programs such as the environmental stewardship program, which oversees the Michigan Agricultural Environmental Assurance Program.

The food and dairy division would be hit hard, with a proposed reduction of about 40 percent, or $700,000. Local conservation district funding would be cut 50 percent from last year, or $458,400. The water withdrawal program would see a cut of $130,000.

Granholm’s budget plan “recommends that horse racing programs be completely self-supporting. In prior years, horse racing programs have been partially supported with casino licensing revenues. The governor recommends that casino licensing revenues instead support state police forensic laboratory operations.”

The horse racing programs fall under the MDA’s rubric. It is considered important in the state for agriculture, not only because it promotes horse ownership but also because it helps support those who grow hay, large animal veterinarians and other supportive agricultural activities.