The King County Council will vote this afternoon on the 2010 budget, which preserves domestic-violence and Metro bus funding, but may eliminate funding for all of the programs operated by WSU’s King County Extension program, including 4-H, forestry education, the Master Gardeners program, and Food $ense, a nutrition education program for low-income and minority youth.
Originally, the council’s budget called for reducing funding for the extension program from $672,000 to $109,000—an 84 percent cut. Under the latest council proposal, however, the programs would be axed completely—a move that would also jeopardize a $1.2 million grant from the Kellogg Foundation for the Food and Fitness Initiative, which is contingent on the county maintaining its ties to WSU.
The 84 percent cut, although “severe,” would have “at least allowed King County and WSU to maintain a relationship,” says Randy Engstrom, interim director of KCFFI. If the budget passes as it’s currently written, however, “WSU is going to have to step in and say, ‘We can’t take this grant.’”
In recent years, county-funded programs like 4-H have been increasingly geared toward urban kids who have little access to the outdoors. For example, the Food and Fitness Initiative operates programs that aim to increase kids’ access to healthy foods; increase physical education for kids; and increase access to fresh, affordable food in low-income areas like Delridge, where the organization is trying to get a full-service grocery store. 4-H, meanwhile, includes programs to teach kids about robotics, forestry, community gardening and environmental stewardship. They also encourage city folks to visit and patronize local farms.
“We specifically target the urban population,” says Brad Goalach, director of King County Extension. “Urban people who actually go out to farms are more wiling to support ordinances that preserve farmland and more willing to buy local food,” which in turn helps protect the county’s endangered farmland from encroaching sprawl, Goalach says.
The council is reportedly considering an amendment that could keep the programs alive, at least temporarily, by giving it a little money in a supplemental budget to be adopted later this year. That would, in theory, allow WSU to keep its grant, although there’s no guarantee the programs would be preserved in the next few years, when the council will likely have to cut the county budget again.
One bit of positive farm-related news: The latest version of the county budget preserves funding for farm-promotion programs like Puget Sound Fresh, which supports local farmers, promotes community-supported agriculture, and supports farmers markets throughout the county.
The council will take public comments and vote on the budget today at 2:00.
