Authority: Title 23.1,Chapter 26, Article 2 , 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. It is the intent of the General Assembly that the general fund share for the Virginia Cooperative Extension and Agriculture Experiment Station shall be 95 percent.
E. 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.
F. Out of this appropriation, $1,000,000 the second year from the general fund is designated to support extension programs for the on-going costs of internet connectivity and to begin phasing in twelve additional extension agents and six additional specialists. Funding for the equipment and technology upgrades which will enhance the quality of research and extension programming at the Agricultural Research and Extension Centers is contained in a separate item under the Higher Education Equipment Trust Fund (HEETF).