Extension budget passes finance

NORWICH – Indications are that the county’s agriculture and livestock budget will be up about $10,000, or 4.3 percent over last year.

The 2008 proposed budget for Cornell Cooperative Extension passed through Chenango County’s Finance Committee this week with only the supervisor from Pharsalia voting against it.

However, committee Chairman Lawrence N. Wilcox, R-Oxford, warned the Extension’s executive director not to come back again next year with an increase.

“I’m not a big fan of the Extension ... We represent 50,000 people in this county and taxes are an issue. I don’t want to see a $10,000 increase year after year,” he said.

The department requests a total of $240,000 from Chenango County to support its personnel and programs, which is more than a third of what the state and federal government contributes. The total amount for salaries and fringe benefits budgeted for next year is $424,992. Revenues of approximately $595,000 are anticipated.

Town of Pharsalia Supervisor Dennis Brown said the department’s budget passed through the Ag, Buildings and Grounds Committee last week because two of the committee’s supervisors sit on the Extension’s board of directors. “They lobbied it very hard,” he said, referring to Janice O’Shea of Coventry and Peter C. Flanagan of Preston.

Wilcox and Brown were joined by Town of German Supervisor Richard Schlag who all expressed concern that the Extension’s programs were duplicating services already funded in other ways by taxpayers.