LAIC Loses Again -- County Cuts More from Economic Development Budget

Want to see fiscal conservatism at work? Go see the county commission. Tonight's MDL [Elisa Sand, "Extension Hours Increased: Changes Made in County Budget; LAIC Loses Again," Madison Daily Leader, 2007.09.11, pp.1-2] tells us that extension educators Becky Jensen and Marta Lembcke, backed by some feisty 4-H leaders, asked the county today to restore at least some of the hours that it reduced from the extension office secretary's position. The county obliged, funding an increase in secretary Glenda Blom's hours from 32 to 35 hours a week.

However, the county commissioners weren't about to just throw more money into the pot. They insisted on offsetting the extension office increase with a cut somewhere else. And to whom do they turn, axe in hand? To the chopping block goes the Lake Area Improvement Corporation. Still smarting from last week's dust-up and 50% reduction in assistance from the county, the LAIC suffered another hit, with commissioners funding the extension office hours increase by taking an additional $2500 out of its contribution to the LAIC. County funding for the LAIC has thus dropped from the normal $15,000 to "only" $5000.

We welcome comments from all sides on the wisdom of how the county allocates its money. We do wish to thank the commission for at least not spending money it doesn't have. Good government means making hard choices. When a good cause, like increased funding for extension and 4-H activities, comes up, the easy thing for a politician to do is to throw money at it and let someone else figure out how to pay it. The hard thing is to set priorities and make cuts in other important programs to pay for that increase. We can argue about those priorities, but in this case, we at least see the commission making a budget and sticking to it.