The 56 county-based Cornell Cooperative Extension (CCE) associations are a vital part of Cornell's land-grant mission. They act as fingers reaching out from Cornell, providing information and services that may be the only tangible contact that many New Yorkers have with their land-grant university.

This contact offers a direct way to transfer cutting-edge land-grant university research into understandable and meaningful ways to help people across the state. CCE offers programs in agriculture and food systems; children, youth and families; community and economic vitality; environment and natural resources; and nutrition and health.

While many people may have heard of, or directly benefited from, one of CCE master gardener classes, 4-H clubs or nutrition programs, few are aware of CCE's complex funding.

It all begins with CCE associations, which are governed by boards of local volunteers. The boards identify their community's educational needs, address those needs through appropriate programs, hire staff and secure funds.

In 1912, a state statute established associations as subordinate government agencies, and further legislation the next year provided funding to support the system of county extension associations. County associations get their funding from state and county government, grants and contracts and federal money through Cornell.

Through an agreement with Cornell, county extension associations use those funds to provide information and educational programs, and to make Cornell research and resources available to New York residents across the state.

Also, 1951's County Law 224 required the to state set aside funds to directly support CCE programs. The law specifies that the state match 50 cents for every dollar up to the first $100,000 provided by the county to a CCE association, and 5 cents for every dollar thereafter. County Law 224 funding is part of the State University of New York budget.

In recent years, however, New York state has not increased its support for county associations. County Law 224 coffers are now around $3.6 million, but CCE officials hope to rally support to raise state funding by nearly $900,000, to $4.5 million. When state lawmakers seek to trim the SUNY budget or to reallocate funds, County Law 224 can fall victim.

"Three years ago state support for county associations was reduced by $1 million dollars; however, many people rallied on behalf of CCE, so state legislators restored County Law 224 funding," said Glenn Applebee, associate director of CCE, noting that association board members are now urging their state legislators to support the County Law 224 fund increase.

"This funding is important as capacity funds [base funding] for local county CCE programs to operate," said Applebee.

The New York City CCE office, which supplies the Big Apple's 8 million-plus residents with services from the land-grant university, is also looking for additional funds, but because of how it is set up, it is not directly financed by state, county or city government. It is not an association, so it is mainly supported by CCE administration, which gets its money from the state and federal governments and from the Colleges of Agriculture and Life Sciences and of Human Ecology.

Yet, the city's CCE office engages 15,000 adults and youth through such award-winning programs as Garden Mosaics, Talking With Kids About AIDS/HIV, Obesity Prevention, 4-H Youth Development, the Expanded Food Stamp Nutrition Education Program and more.

CCE supports a proposal currently circulating that asks the state to provide significant funding for the New York office, which could then be matched by the city.

"We are currently having good conversations with elected officials in New York and discussing the possibilities," said Don Tobias, executive director of the New York City CCE office. "Whether we will see action taken as soon as the next few months or next year remains to be seen."

"We should make a concerted effort to have New York City appreciate some of the benefits this [the New York City] office provides and support some of its operations," said Charles Kruzansky, associate director of government affairs in Cornell's Albany office.