Virginia Cooperative Extension and Agricultural Experiment Station (229)

Authority: § 23-132.1 through § 23-132.11, Code of Virginia.

A. Appropriations for this agency shall include operating expenses for research and investigations, and the several regional and county agricultural experiment stations under its control, in accordance with law.

B.1. It is the intent of the General Assembly that the Cooperative Extension Service gives highest priority to programs and services which comprised the original mission of the Extension Service, especially agricultural programs at the local level. The university shall ensure that the service utilizes information technology to the extent possible in the delivery of programs.

2. The budget of this agency shall include and separately account for local payments. Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, in conjunction with Virginia State University, shall report, by fund source, actual expenditures for each program area and total actual expenditures for the agency, annually, by September 1, to the Department of Planning and Budget and the House Appropriations and Senate Finance Committees. The report shall include all expenditures from local support funds.

C. The Virginia Cooperative Extension and Agricultural Experiment Station shall not charge a fee for testing the soil on property used for commercial farming.

D. The appropriation for the fund source Higher Education Operating in this Item shall be considered a sum sufficient appropriation, which is an estimate of the amount of revenues to be collected for the educational and general program under the terms of the management agreement between Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University and the Commonwealth, as set forth in Chapters 933 and 943, of the 2006 Acts of Assembly.

E. Out of this appropriation, $1,563,716 the first year from the general fund and $47,001 from nongeneral funds, and $1,586,879 from the general fund and $48,220 from nongeneral funds the second year is for the operation and maintenance of the new Human and Agricultural Biosciences building coming on line.

F. Out of this appropriation, $110,000 and one position the first year and $110,000 and one position the second year from the general fund is provided for an agricultural education specialist to provide support and professional development to agriculture education teachers in middle and high schools.