County Commissioners voted 2-1 in November to renew a long-standing agreement with Montana State University for the Extension program in Cascade County.

The renewal term is July 1, 2025 through June 30, 2026.

In the agreement documents, the Montana Association of Counties recommended that counties provide support to MSU Extension for agents at 65 percent of the county clerk and recorder’s salary to a maximum of $39,000.

This year, the clerk and recorder’s base salary is $78,164.84.

MSU provides the remaining costs, according to the agreement.

In the Cascade County agreement documents, three Extension agents are listed at $39,000 each for a total county contribution of $117,000 this fiscal year.

During their Nov. 12 commission meeting, Cascade County Commissioner Joe Briggs said that Extension “is not a joint spending obligation.”

He said that the Morrill Land Grant College Act of 1862 gave funding to land grant colleges in exchange for providing programs such as Extension.

Briggs said that over the years, the number of tasks and programs under Extension has expanded so funds have dwindled, but that doesn’t remove the responsibility for funding Extension from MSU and the Montana Legislature.

Montana law allows counties to appropriate funds for Extension, but doesn’t require it, Briggs said.

The agents are MSU employees and the county has no control over their actions, schedules and pay scales, but is expected to provide office space, staff support, computers, internet service and mileage reimbursement to the Extension agents, at no cost to the state, he said.

The contract considered during the November meeting was for $117,000 to subsidize the agent salaries, but the county’s actual contribution to Extension for the fiscal year is $233,561, Briggs said.

All county departments are being considered for budget cuts, Briggs said.

“I don’t believe extension should be immune to these,” he said, and that the county had already cut 19 positions that year. “I don’t think it’s fair to every other department in the county that we automatically fund” the Extension program.

“The state can afford this better than we can,” Briggs said, and he can’t support the funding until Extension is willing to have a conversation about it.

MSU was founded in 1893 as the state’s agricultural college and as a land grant college, is responsible for providing extension services, according to information compiled by Briggs.

Primarily through the Morrill Act, MSU has more than 260,000 acres to generate revenue from commercial and agricultural leases.

MSU’s funding from those Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation was $1,979,970 in the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2024, according to Brigg’s document.

The remaining balance in the Morrill Trust Fund for MSU extension and other land grant required operations that same fiscal year was $18,316,494, according to Briggs.

Commissioner Jim Larson said he didn’t disagree and had talked to other counties about the amount being paid to extension programs.

“There are others now that are starting to question this payment by the counties without further help from the extension services of MSU,” Larson said.

He said he’d vote to approve the contract for the current fiscal year, but wanted to push harder with lawmakers and the Board of Regents for more extension funding rather than relying on counties.

Commissioners voted 2-1 with Briggs opposed.