As the Alachua County Commission begins planning for the 2009 fiscal year budget, local agencies are starting to come to terms with the impact of impending budget cuts.
Alachua County's Community Agency Partnership Program, which supplies grants to local non-profit agencies, will be losing funds next year, county commissioners decided at a special meeting Tuesday.
The exact amount that will be cut is uncertain, Commissioner Cynthia Chestnut said, and will be decided in March when commissioners start determining the budget for the 2009 fiscal year, which starts Oct. 1, 2008.
Last year the program gave out $890,756 to 21 non-profit organizations that help reduce poverty and $172,599 to four agencies that promote the arts or the environment.
This is the first year the program's grants will not increase, Chestnut said.
Without the county grants, non-profit representatives said they would look for funding from the city and private donations.
The director and only employee of Gainesville Harvest, Frances Leslie, said about half her budget comes from the county grants.
Last year her agency, which supplies food to local food banks, received $53,546.
"People think when you recycle food you don't need money," she said.
Theresa Harrison, executive director of Peaceful Paths, a domestic violence shelter, said the $80,279 the agency received from county grants last year is about 10 percent of its budget. Without it, Peaceful Paths will look to the city and hold fundraisers to get the funding it needs, Harrison said.
She said she hopes private citizens will help out by donating food and supplies.
Dick Bradley, executive director of the nonprofit organization ARC of Alachua County, which helps the disabled, said he will not worry until the commission makes concrete decisions.
The organization received $35,511 last year to fund an elderly day program. While it has a $10 million overall budget, the elderly day program, which provides nursing care to 40 senior citizens, was funded entirely by the county, Bradley said.
Without county money, he'll have to look for more grants.
"We're not swimming in extra dollars by any stretch of the imagination," he said.
