WSU Extension eyes budget cuts

In light of impending cuts to the WSU budget, the state’s WSU Extension office this year created a task force to brainstorm and prepare its program for budget cuts.

“The cuts that are given to WSU could impact the WSU Extension. It’s within the overall WSU budget. I don’t think we are any more vulnerable or at risk than any other part of WSU,” said Linda Kirk Fox, associate director of the state WSU Extension office, based in Pullman.

Programs like 4H and Master Gardener are run by extension offices throughout the state.

Janet Schmidt of the WSU-Whitman County Extension Office mentioned the task force at the Whitman County commissioners meeting March 21. In a later interview with the Gazette, Schmidt pointed out the Extension office provides many ongoing, vital services to the community. The cuts to WSU’s budget could one day be felt at the local level, she said.

“That’ll filter down to the college and the departments within colleges,” Schmidt said.

Fox said her office formed a task force in January to be pro-active about WSU’s impending budget cuts. The state budget is facing a $5.1 billion deficit that will undoubtedly affect higher education.

“The WSU budget reductions—we don’t know what they are—they will certainly be severe,” Fox added.

Of the 14 members on the task force, called the Restructuring and Refinement Task Force, eight are county commissioners and six are WSU Extension employees.

The eight commissioners represent counties from both rural and urban regions of the state, Fox added. Spokane County commissioner Mark Richard is an eastern Washington member of the task force.

Neither the Whitman County commissioners nor Whitman County Extension staffers are on the task force.

“It’s the mechanisms of how do we administer our programs, how many people can cover how much geographic area,” Fox said.