Montrose - Daily Press

James Shea

Daily Press Writer

DELTA - Fears about a drastic reduction in 4-H and other extension services might have been alleviated here Thursday.

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Wayne Cooley, Colorado State University Cooperative Extension Tri River Area director, presented a 2007 budget proposal to commissioners from Ouray, Montrose, Mesa and Delta counties.

The four counties have a cost-sharing agreement for extension services. Mesa pays approximately 70 percent, Delta 13 percent, Ouray 1 percent and Montrose 17 percent. The arrangement allows extension to offer more services because it can split costs between the four counties.

Over the last year, Montrose County commissioners have expressed reservations about continuing to fund of extension. Voters did not approve an extension of the 1-cent sales tax in November and the commissioners have looked at the possibility of reducing the extension service budget to balance the budget.

Montrose County Commissioner Allan Belt appeared upbeat about extension service’s initial proposal.

“It’s a good place to start,” Belt said. “We can go back and have further discussions.”

Extension proposed a $303,186 budget but only needs $208,109 in funding. This is because the agency has $22,077 in carry over for next year. Cooley said about 42 to 43 percent of extension funding comes from the counties. The rest of the funds are from the state and federal governments and grants.

“None of this is going to happen if we don’t have the support of the counties,” Cooley said.

Beside 4-H, the extension service also provides rangeland management, irrigation improvement projects, a master gardener program, small-acreage consulting, firearms training and nutrition education.

Tri-River Extension generated $6.7 million in revenue or direct savings in 2005 from $290,935 in local government contributions, according to Cooley.

“If you have a stock tip out there like that, I would like to get the tip,” Colley said of the counties’ return on investment.

Belt asked Cooley about the funding percentage arrangement, wanting to know if there was another way to divide the costs.

“That’s up to the boards (of county commissioners),” Cooley said.

He said the percentage arrangement has been in place for “a long time.” The counties had discussed changing the method a few years ago but nothing developed.

“There may be another way to do it,” Cooley said. “I don’t know. Obviously, the majority of the population is in Mesa County.”

Counties will be finalizing budgets over the next two months. Montrose County will hold meetings with department heads in October and a final budget resolution will be adopted in December.

The only real concern among the commissioners over the extension service budget was mileage reimbursement. Delta County Commissioner Wayne Wolf said 40 cents a mile was above Delta County’s rate, and he was concerned about some Delta County employees getting a higher rate.

Cooley said the rate was raised to offset the increased cost of driving. He said employees deserve to be fairly compensated for the use of a personnel vehicle, but he said the 40-cent rate is hard on the budget.

“We are going over our travel budget,” Cooley said.

He said the 2007 budget from the state is positive. Extension service cut 34 positions statewide because of the budget crisis in 2003, but the passage of referendum C last year improved the financial picture.

“By passing C, we prevented not having to make another 20-percent cut,” Cooley said. “We don’t get any of that back.”

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