Early this week, we headlined a good news story: Phew! PA budget battle is over; ag wins - for now. Unfortunately, it seems it wasn’t the whole story.

On Tuesday, PennAg Industry’s Executive Vice President Chris Herr pointed out that some $25.7 million for Pennsylvania’s Animal Health Commission, the veterinary diagnostic labs, Farm Show, and fairs won’t be coming through – due to a procedural hitch. That included $11.5 million promised for combatting avian influenza. The governor vetoed the fiscal code bill enabling that distribution.

As Herr put it: “We have a lot of work to do still. We [meaning the General Assembly and Governor] have to find more revenue.”

Correction: PA budget battle is NOT over

That had no effect on funding for agriculture research and Cooperative Extension facilities administered by Penn State, assured Mark O'Neill, director of media and strategic communications for Pennsylvania Farm Bureau. And it didn’t “negatively affect the other programs funded within the Department of Agriculture. That’s the good news.

“Unfortunately, the veto of the fiscal code does impact aspects of the [new] Racehorse Development Fund,” he added. “That means that funding for the Animal Health Commission, the veterinary lab system and Pennsylvania fairs, which comes through the Racehorse Development Fund, is not available at this time. But we are hopeful the situation will be resolved relatively soon.”

It must be noted that there’s still confusion about what programs and dollar amounts are impacted. The initial report was that $1.5 million for Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture’s ag research line item, $250,000 designated for ag exports, $1.1 million for Ag Excellence programs, $5.35 million for the Animal Health Commission, $5.3 million for the veterinary lab system, plus $177,000 for livestock shows and county fairs would be affected.

So the 2015-16 budget battle continues, and the 2016-17 battle waits in the wings.