Editorial: With cuts to Extension, SD chickens have come home to roost

Talk about it

State government’s hard stance on the budget is rearing its ugly head, and there isn’t much anyone can do about it. This, unfortunately, is what we asked for as deficits have grown without true ways to pay for them.

At a meeting Wednesday in Chamberlain, attendees were given specifics about major cuts to the South Dakota State University Extension program, which provides advice and resources for ag producers and families, among others. Cuts in state funding mean the Extension Service will be losing $1.5 million over the next three years, including $820,000 in 2012, officials said.

Earlier this week, it was announced the program was cutting all 99 of its educators as part of the restructuring. Although some will be hired back, the positions will be advertised nationwide. In the end, 82 educators will be hired to serve throughout South Dakota.

It’s a sad situation, but one by which we cannot be surprised. The state Legislature this year finally made the kind of cuts that had been discussed for several years. Gov. Dennis Daugaard promised to be frugal and refused to raise taxes. Meanwhile, lawmakers warned the cuts would be wide-reaching and, in many cases, painful.

Cutting from the Extension program is indeed painful, and so is cutting the Ag-Bio Communications Department, where nine people worked filing reports about farming, gardening and South Dakota State University research.

We are disappointed by these cuts because they are contrary to the original intent of the establishment of SDSU — a land-grant school created to support South Dakota agriculture.

However, this is now the reality in South Dakota, where — to use an ag cliché — the chickens have come home to roost. They have come home in the form of major cuts to good programs, and good people losing their jobs.

Many people can get by without the aid of the Extension Service. Many outside of agriculture probably hardly know this service exists.

But some people do rely on the Extension Service, and many homes in South Dakota are gloomy this week because a parent lost a job.

We agree that cuts have to be made and have vowed to try to accept those cuts in the name of fiscal responsibility.

That doesn’t make it any easier.

Tags: opinion, updates, editorial, columns