By CELESTE BAUMGARTNER
Ohio Correspondent

REYNOLDSBURG, Ohio — The Ohio Department of Agriculture (ODA) will be taking a 9 percent hit on its budget for fiscal years 2012 and 2013, which is no surprise since Ohio has an $8 billion deficit. Yet, the department will be able to continue its core mission and not sacrifice services, said Jim Zehringer, ODA director.

“The governor has made it very clear that we are going to keep Ohio’s consumers our number-one priority,” Zehringer said. “We are going to be assuring the consumers of Ohio that we will have safe food, safe animals, plant safety and consumer safety. All of these things are going to stay as our number-one focus here at the Department of Agriculture.”

Despite the cuts, the Division of Weights and Measures will receive new general revenue funds (GRF), said Fred Shimp, ODA assistant director. The program had been “woefully underfunded,” he explained, to the point that the division was not able to meet many statutory requirements.

Ohio law requires that the ODA director is the state sealer and that ODA’s Reynoldsburg laboratory certifies all testing equipment used by county auditors, some municipalities and private entities.

“They bring their equipment here to be tested, so (that) a gallon is a gallon, and a pound is a pound,” Shimp said. “We were really understaffed, so the director asked and the governor said ‘yes,’ and we have some new GRF that will be going into that division. We will be bringing our weights and measure program back to where it needs to be so we can run a statutory program with integrity.”

Many private companies that make and test scales bring their equipment to the laboratories in Reynoldsburg for testing. That wait period had gone from weeks to more than six months, Shimp said. Procter and Gamble and other companies were concerned.

Because of the budget cuts, however, the Ohio Proud program will be maintained but not marketed as actively as had been done in the past, Shimp said.

“We just don’t have the money to do that, but the membership still continues to grow in Ohio Proud. I think more and more companies and businesses, farms, are seeing that that Ohio Proud trademark is really valuable as a marketing tool,” he said.

While the budget shows a 63 percent cut in GRF for farmland preservation, there will be funds used from the Clean Ohio Fund so that funding will hold steady.

ODA’s current budget runs until the end of June. The two-year budget for fiscal 2011-13 will be $47,973,604, Zehringer said. That includes federal funds, money from rotary funds and fees that are paid through the laboratories.
The department will receive $14,054,228 from the GRF. The ODA has 379 full-time employees, and there will probably be some layoffs.

“It could have been a lot worse,” Zehringer said. “We’re pleased but on the other hand, we know all of us have to do our part. We’re going to do the best we can do and keep the consumer safe.”