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ORANGE COUNTY 065 <br /> BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS Action Agenda <br /> ACTION AGENDA ITEM ABSTRACT Item No. EaN <br /> Meeting Date: MARCH 19, 1985 <br /> SUBJECT: OMB PROPOSALS REGARDING THE SOIL CONSERVATION SERVICE (SCS) <br /> DEPARTMENT: COUNTY MANAGER PUBLIC HEARING: Yes X,No <br /> ATTACHMENT(S): INFORMATION CONTACT: MANAGER'S <br /> OFFICE X 501 <br /> TELEPHONE NUMBER: <br /> Hillsborough - 732-8181 <br /> YES Chapel Hill - 968-4501 <br /> Mebane - 227-2031 <br /> Durham 7 688-7331 <br /> PURPOSE: To consider the impact the cuts would have and determine if the <br /> Board desires to take a stand on the matter. <br /> NEED: Under the National Administration's plans to cut the federal <br /> deficit SCS would be severly curtailed. <br /> The President's 1986 budget request for SCS is $453.2 million <br /> versus $609.5 million for FY 85. This is an ostensible cut of <br /> $156.3. However of the $453.2, $253.2 is for phase-out cost <br /> which means the cut is actually $409.5 million (67%). Only <br /> $200.0 million would be available for continuing operation. <br /> Staffing nationally would go from 14,000 to 5,000. Offices <br /> would be shut down in two-thirds of the counties. <br /> In North Carolina the budget would support 36 field offices and <br /> a staff of 100 full-tine staff equivalent which is down from 315 <br /> present positions. Staff would be located to serve multi-county <br /> areas. On farm technical assistance; soil surveys and plant <br /> mater i1 centers would be scaled back. Other programs would be <br /> eliminated including inventory and monitoring, snow surveys, RCA <br /> appraisal, river basin studies, watershed planning and <br /> operations, emergency watershed protection, the Great Plains <br /> Conservation Program, and all conservation cost share programs <br /> handled through ASCS. <br /> IMPACT: Orange County would likely lose its office and staff and thereby <br /> the technical assistance that aids farmers in controlling <br /> erosion. The cost support to install sediment retention <br /> structures would also be lost. The SCS operating budget is <br /> $134,000 ($50,000 federal, $14,000 State, $74,000 County) and <br /> cost sharing amounts to $282,660 ($84,777 federal and $197,883 <br /> State). Assuming a two-thirds loss of the combined federal <br />