Leopold Center prepares for budget cuts

For the first time since the Groundwater Protection Act was passed in 1987, the Leopold Center is preparing for a significant cut in program funding.

The agricultural and natural resources budget bill signed into law on May 25 includes a $250,000 reduction for the Leopold Center from funds generated by fees charged on the sale of nitrogen fertilizers and pest control chemicals. The Center also will experience a further reduction in a line item that is part of the total Iowa State University appropriation. That amount will be determined when the final ISU budget is ready in July.

The reductions represent a significant decrease in the Leopold Center's $1.5 million research budget, and have raised concerns about their impact on current programs.

"We will honor our commitment to projects that will begin July 1 or have been renewed for another year," said Leopold Center director Fred Kirschenmann. "But more than half of these projects are for more than one year and, to accommodate the budget cuts, we can give no guarantees beyond the upcoming year. We have already begun to evaluate existing programs and how they relate to sustainable agriculture at the farm level."

The Leopold Center Advisory Board gave preliminary funding approval in March to fiscal year 2002 competitive grants. In the past, final grant amounts were announced in mid-June at the same time that a request for proposals (RFP) for the upcoming fiscal year was issued. As a first step to adjust to the budget cuts, the Center's fiscal year 2003 RFP is on hold, along with the Center's conference and workshop program that began in 1994.

"We will give serious consideration in the next six months for all projects and programs in which the Center is involved, and how they relate to new directions for the Leopold Center," Kirschenmann said. "We want to focus on programs that will most help farmers."

Despite the budget shortfalls, Kirschenmann said that he was pleased with the support given to the Leopold Center during the legislative process. Governor Tom Vilsack also used a line item veto to reduce the Center's funding cuts by $100,000 when he signed the agricultural and natural resources budget bill in May.