A $10.5 million cut in state funding to cooperative extension offices could mean job cuts statewide, including at the Butler office.

Cooperative extension offices are run out of Penn State University’s College of Agricultural Sciences. There is one in every county, and they serve as a link between farmers and researchers who study farming.

State funding to Penn State was cut by 19 percent. The means that cooperative extension offices and agricultural research also are being cut by 19 percent.

Chuck Gill, a spokesman for the program, said about 90 percent of the funding that goes to cooperative extension offices and agricultural research is spent on personnel, and the programs do not receive tuition funds.

“So, there are very few options for making up that shortfall,” Gill said.

About 80 people took early retirement incentives this year.

Additionally, Gill said it is likely that 75 positions, including many of the ones that were effected by the retirements, will be eliminated.

“Unfortunately many of them will have to be layoffs,” Gill said.

For the past few years, the state appropriation was about $55 million.

This year’s state appropriation is about $44 million.

The extension program also gets funds from the federal government and the counties.

Currently, college officials are discussing what positions should be eliminated and what programs should be cut.

“Everything’s on the table right now,” Gill said.

Donna Zang, director of the Butler County cooperative extension office, declined to comment on this funding issue.