04/25/07 WSU ag and the Legislature's final budget

Washington Ag April 25, 2007 A major priority for Washington State University during the just completed legislative session was its 10.8 million dollar Unified Agriculture Initiative. WSU lobbyist Larry Ganders says the final operating budget approved by lawmakers provided 5.3 million dollars, which was more than the Senate or the governor provided in their budgets. Ganders: "Certainly a start. It is one of the larger appropriations WSU has ever gotten for agriculture. While it is about half of what we were hoping for it nevertheless is a start to trying to fill some gaps in what we are trying to do in ag research. The trick now will be deciding which of that request we implement." There is at least partial funding for two competitive grant pools, including one in organic or "biologically intensive" agriculture. The final legislative compromise did not provide for core support at research stations although Ganders says 734 million dollars was provided for maintenance and operation for the Mount Vernon station. Lawmakers provided $4 million for the comprehensive research program to generate fuels made from crops and plants grown in Washington and also 800-thousand dollars for WSU to analyze options for market incentives to encourage biofuel production. I'm Bob Hoff.