A $3.6 million annual cut in state funding to University of Wisconsin-Extension will reduce the number of agents and researchers who provide assistance to farmers, families and youths across the state. And that has county officials worried.

They voiced concerns Tuesday during a Wisconsin Counties Association question-and-answer session in Madison with UW-Extension dean Richard Klemme.

La Crosse County Administrator Steve O'Malley said Extension's proposed plan to absorb cuts to UW in the state budget violates the so-called "Wisconsin Idea." That fundamental tenet of UW’s mission statement calls for the boundaries of the university to extend to the boundaries of the state. The notion is so much a part of state culture that Gov. Scott Walker’s effort to delete the Wisconsin Idea from state law in his 2016-2016 budget bill unleashed such a furor that budget writers restored it.

"From La Crosse County's perspective, it looks like we could lose three or four agents," O'Malley told Klemme, according to Wisconsin Public Radio. "And that doesn't comport with your statement that we're going to have more agents and the boundaries of the state are going to be well served."