Extension offices, others await ag funds

CHAMPAIGN -- State agriculture agencies on Thursday hoped to receive at least some of the $36 million in operating funds tied up in a state budget standoff, after being told an agreement had been reached between legislators and the governor.

But Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who started the impasse and must agree to release any of the money, so far isn't confirming anything.

His silence left some people skeptical that the money was on its way.

"There's a saying that would be apt here with this particular governor and budget team. 'In God I trust, all others pay cash,'" said Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn.

Blagojevich in early April notified the University of Illinois Extension Service, the state Council for Food and Agricultural Research and soil and water conservation districts around the state that he was holding onto the money to help shore up a $750 million budget deficit.

Some state Senate Democrats told those agencies, after a few dozen employees had been laid off, that a deal had been brokered to release the money.

"I asked him if he could released the ag funds and get that taken care of," Senate President Emil Jones, a Chicago Democrat, said Thursday, adding that the governor agreed to release at least some of the money, less than $20 million.

But as of Thursday afternoon, the governor hadn't said anything publicly about the money. Calls and e-mails to his office by The Associated Press were not been returned.

Terry Davis, president of the Association of Illinois Soil and Water Districts, said getting only $20 million would leave the agencies on "life support."

Money held up by the governor includes the Extension Service's entire $17.9 million in state funding -- which includes money for 4H youth programs -- $4.5 million for the Council for Food and Agricultural Research, and $13.3 million of the $15 million budgeted for soil and water conservation districts.

The state Comptroller's Office, which would issue checks to the agencies, says that it's received no word to release the money.

"We are on the lookout because we have heard the rumors," spokeswoman Carol Knowles said Thursday morning.

State Sen. Deanna Demuzio, D-Carlinville, said she believed agencies were being notified by the governor's office, but the agencies hadn't yet received word.

Gary Beaumont, a spokesman for the Extension Service, said the agency is hopeful, but "we're moving fairly cautiously here. We don't have the money yet."

That means the agency isn't calling back the 39 employees it laid off the past few weeks to make ends meet, he said.

At least one soil and water conservation district office, in Scott County just southwest of Springfield, has already closed, leading to four layoffs, while offices in Lawrence County in far southeast Illinois and Stark County north of Peoria were scheduled to close in the next 10 days, according to Richard Nichols, executive director of the Association of Illinois Soil and Water Conservation Districts.

Nichols, like Beaumont, was left Thursday waiting for some definitive word from the governor's office that had not yet come.

"While that doesn't sound real good, at least he's not saying no," Nichols said.

Blagojevich's critics have accused him of blocking the money to force lawmakers to give him more spending authority.

"I don't know what the governor was possibly thinking in threatening funding for these programs," Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn said Wednesday. "If they think this approach is their way to get their way on the budget, it's completely wrong."

Quinn plans a Thursday afternoon news conference at the state Capitol to pressure Blagojevich on the money.