4/03/01

By MARK POWELL

Over the past two months, the Great Frederick Fair’s executive assistant, Becky Brashear, has sent a letter to the governor and testified before Annapolis legislators in a busy attempt to restore threatened funding for the Maryland Agricultural Fair Board.
Brashear’s not alone.
Maryland Agricultural Education Foundation Executive Director Steve Connelly, Queen Anne’s County Fair board member Andrew McLean, the state Farm Bureau and other agricultural leaders have all been busy pushing for the passage of emergency legislation and money from Gov. Parris Glendening’s supplemental budget to make up for a shortfall of $1.2 million in funds from excess lottery revenues for Fiscal Year 2001.
Shepherded by former Maryland Farm Bureau lobbyist Jack Miller, ag groups have been diligently working to secure the funds. Traditionally, the Maryland Agriculture Fair Board, county fairs and the ag education foundation receive funds in the form of grants from the state’s “special fund,” which is primarily financed through money raised from the horse racing industry.
Those funds were shifted last year to help pay for the improvement of racing tracks, while the ag fairs were to receive money from the state lottery. However, shortfalls in the anticipated excess lottery revenues have led to the current situation in which not enough money will be available for the fairs, unless the legislature and the governor act.
Observers are hoping the money will be there, as two pieces of “emergency” legislation were meeting little opposition in the legislature. At presstime, however, the issue was as of yet undecided. The two bills (House Bill 908 and Senate Bill 764) had not yet been enacted. And, the governor’s supplemental budget had not yet been revealed.
Without action, the reductions to the ag organizations would look like this: the Great Frederick Fair would have a $13,331 reduction, down from $40,000 to $26,669; the Great Pocomoke Fair would have a $6,665 reduction; the Maryland Agricultural Education Foundation, a $24,995 reduction; the Maryland Agriculture Fair Board, a $274,947 reduction; and the Maryland State Fair and Agricultural Society, a $166,635 reduction. Other cuts would come to the Maryland Million horseracing event ($166,635) and the Standardbred Race Fund Sire Stakes ($116,644).
Brashear pointed out that every county in the state has a county fair funded by the state Agriculture Fair Board, so that a cut in the fair board’s funding will have a ripple effect throughout the state.
She said premiums offered at the Great Frederick Fair could be dramatically impacted if the legislature and governor don’t act.
Supporters of the fairs pointed out to the legislature and Gov. Glendening that more than 33,000 rural youth are participants in the events that are directly funded by the Maryland Agriculture Fair Board. And, in Baltimore City, a 4-H Expo is planned for June as a direct result of funding from the fair board.
In all, there are 58 Maryland Agricultural Fair Board-funded events, shows and activities.