A fair fee? Indiana imposing fees for 4-H participants for the first time

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Clark County 4-H beef barn committee chairman Kevin Christman leads a steer that was tagged an enrolled Saturday morning at the 4-H Fairgrounds. All steers, heifers and cows that Clark county 4-H members want to exhibit this summer at the 4-H Fair had to enrolled on Saturday. Staff photo by C.E. Branham

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February 6, 2012

By BRADEN LAMMERS Braden.Lammers@newsandtribune.com The News and Tribune Mon Feb 06, 2012, 04:35 AM EST

CLARK COUNTY — It will take a little more green to be part of the 4-H programs in Indiana this year.

For the first time, the state’s 4-H programs will be charging a fee for its participants. A minimum $15 charge is being imposed on 4-H participants that range from third grade to 12th grade and some counties are adding on their own fees.

Clark County will charge its participants $10 annually, but Floyd County is not tacking on additional costs.

According to the Clark County Purdue Extension website, the fee was added because, “over the past decade state line items and federal funding have remained unchanged. This has not allowed the Indiana 4-H Youth Development program to keep up with inflation and there is no expectation for the trend to change.”

Although the fee may not seem like a lot compared to paying for AAU tournaments or youth soccer leagues, Bob Allen, Clark County 4-H youth educator, is concerned the fee may affect participation levels.

“I think it may impact numbers and participation some,” he said. “I’m hoping we don’t get to the point we have to start charging program fees.”

The fee that will be imposed will be used to pay insurance for the members, revamp curricula, develop more online resources and sustain and improve current leadership training, according to the website.

Allen said his hope is the fee being charged by the state and the county will be enough to cover costs and that 4-H members will not be asked to cover any more expenses.

“They have never had to pay a program fee,” Allen said. “A lot of these young people are probably not going to be able to afford it. 4-H has held the line for an awful lot of years providing them for free.”

He said Clark County’s 4-H program will continue to pay for project support manuals that are provided to its participants.

Along with free manuals, members of Clark County’s mini 4-H program — children from kindergarten through second grade — will not be charged and the maximum for one family, which will be capped at three participants, will be $75.

“It’s going to offset some of the expenses of materials we’re giving these kids all for free,” Allen said.

The fee that the county will impose would raise about $5,000 for the Clark County 4-H programs to cover expenses, based on the 500 people enrolled in the 4-H program last year. But county funding may also play a role in whether or not the Clark County 4-H program asks its participants to cover additional costs.

Allen said a line-item in the Clark County Commissioners budget for awards and programming helped cover $12,000 worth of expenses for 4-H programs last year. He said the amount was slightly more than the group has received in previous years, which is generally in the $8,000 to $10,000 range.

“We wouldn’t have asked for it if we didn’t feel we need it to cover our expenses,” he said.

But if the money is not designated again, and the county is faced with substantial, across-the-board cuts, Allen said he is not sure what they will do.

“It took a lot of time trying to run down money,” he said, referring to last year. “It took away from what we could do for the kids.”

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A fair fee? Indiana imposing fees for 4-H participants for the first time

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