Our new budget allocation formula was implemented on July 1, 2003. The 4.4
million dollar reduction in state allocated monies to CALS forced us to
reassess how we funded county programs and positions. Our goal was and is to
have a fair, transparent process that all faculty, staff, advisory board
members, and elected officials understand. When we drafted this plan over
one year ago, we did not know whether we would have additional midyear cuts
by state government or what the economic climate would be for this year.
While we still do not have sufficient information on the economic forecast
for 2004-05, overall it looks better than six months ago. Now that we have
a clearer picture of the impact of the new budgeting process and of county
needs and we have made budget cuts in the state office and in other areas.
Thus, we are confident in making several recommendations for budget
allocations in 2004: 1) retroactive to January 1, 2004 (i.e., one-half year
allocation), we are increasing the base funding to all counties from $35,000
to $38,000. Other budget allocations will remain the same (satellite office,
area agent and faculty support) until June 30, 2004; 2) for July 1, 2004, we
will fully implement the formula with no cuts to any county; and 3) for July
1, 2004, we will increase support for counties with more than 2 agents to
$17,500, which will include the January 2004 1.5% salary adjustment. Any
subsequent staff increases will be included in subsequent allocations. We
hope this will help alleviate some of the county budget stress. We will
reassess the budget allocation this summer until the legislature has made
final decisions on the U of A budget, CALS budget and the Farm Bureau
Initiative.
Our Faculty at the (Southwest Indian Agricultural Assoc.) SWIAA met in
Laughlin, Nevada last week and did an outstanding job in their
presentations. I would like to thank Joe Hiller, Asst. Director for Native
American Programs, Liz Didier-Hualapai/Havasupai, Matt Livingston-Hopi,
Linda Masters-CRIT, Gerald Moore-Navajo Nation, Sabrina Tuttle-San Carlos
Apache Tribe, Jeannie Benally-Navajo Nation (Shiprock), Peder Cuneo, Russ
Tronstad and Trent Teegerstrom.
Dean Gene Sander presented an Award to Elliot Booth, first president of
SWIAA, for his 11 years of effort to represent the University of Arizona
College of Ag. & Life Science at the National level on CARET (Council on
Agriculture, Research, Extension and Teaching.)
A grant program ESRI for GIS software was received in La Paz County. The
software sells for $1,500 a copy; along with the software you receive a site
license with full technical and educational support from ESRI. For more
information, contact Linda Masters (lmasters@ag.arizona.edu or
928-669-9843).
At the beginning of each calendar year we remind Extension personnel of the
importance of achieving full compliance with our affirmative action/equal
opportunity responsibilities through implementation of our
non-discrimination policy. The nine protected areas for compliance are:
race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, veteran status
and sexual orientation. All administrators, faculty and staff must be in
full compliance with Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity policies and
procedures as listed on the Equal Opportunity & Affirmative Action Office
website: http://fp.arizona.edu/affirm/policies.htm. In addition, this
notice and the CALS Civil Rights Performance Plan-2004-2008 (November 2003)
should be easily accessible in a central file in each unit under the heading
"Annual Civil Rights Non-Discrimination Policy Reminder." If you have
questions about this policy or procedure, please contact Bobby Browning
(520-621-1145) or Steven Crofts (520-621-7145), CALS Affirmative Action
Officers. I appreciate your efforts toward complete compliance with these
important policies and procedures.