Steinhaus' county budget axes 4-H

MILLBROOK — Dutchess County Executive William Steinhaus’ 2011 budget, submitted to the Legislature in early November, eliminates 100 percent of funding for countywide 4-H programs. This includes 50 4-H clubs, 500 children and the work of hundreds of volunteers.

The 4-H barns at the Dutchess County Fair may be empty in August if the cuts are permanent, and the 4-H members, who proudly show their livestock and bunk at the 4-H dorm, would then have to stay home.

The elimination of 4-H funding was just part of the overall 84 percent cut in county funding for the Cornell Cooperative Extension Dutchess County (CCEDC), headquartered at the Farm & Home Center in Millbrook on Route 44. The Steinhaus budget also cuts 100 percent from the CCEDC’s environmental, nutrition and financial management education programs and 52 percent from the extension’s core agriculture programs.

The total impact of this massive reduction is even greater as the CCEDC’s state and federal monies match the level of county funding. These additional government dollars, along with other outside grants, triple the value of the county’s appropriations.

In a letter to supporters, CCEDC Association Board President Laurie Rich estimated that the documented economic impact of the CCEDC in Dutchess County is multiplied nine times for every dollar received from the county. At a Nov. 3 hearing, CCEDC’s executive director, Linda Keech, pleaded with legislators to restore funding.

“If not, it will result in the elimination of all of our programs and services,� Keech said.

The overall 84 percent proposed reduction in county funding amounts to $774,770 and will probably mean the elimination of 30 CCEDC jobs. Every year the CCEDC has had to fight to restore funding to the final county budget. Last year Steinhaus’s budget called for a cut of almost half, but in the end legislators restored all but 17 percent.

The Budget and Finance Subcommittee of the Legislature is now meeting daily to help prepare the Legislature’s version of the budget, which will be presented on Tuesday, Nov. 23. A public hearing is scheduled for Thursday, Dec. 2, at 7 p.m. at the Bardavon in Poughkeepsie. The CCEDC is asking residents to contact their county legislators and report about the importance of CCEDC to their lives, whether it relates to advice on parenting, nutrition or budgeting family finances.