THE BALLOON MAN

County fairs must steer around California budget cuts

The Cow Palace would lose $140,000 of its $4.5 million budget, which the Daly City venue currently uses to support the Junior Grand National during the nine-day Grand National Rodeo in October, due to state budget cuts. (Getty Images file photo)
By: Shaun Bishop 03/23/11
The purse for that prize-winning steer may be a little less meaty at this year’s Junior Grand National at the Cow Palace.
Leaner payouts at the annual livestock show for kids could be one of the few tangible impacts on the Peninsula from the governor’s proposal to eliminate $32 million in funding for the state’s 78 county fairs.
The Cow Palace would lose $140,000 of its $4.5 million budget, which the Daly City venue currently uses to support the Junior Grand National during the nine-day Grand National Rodeo in October.
Cow Palace General Manager Joe Barkett said the rodeo will go on, but the state cut would likely mean reducing the several hundred prizes — ranging from $2 to several thousand dollars — for the cows, sheep, pigs and other animals presented at the show.
“A big beef cattle class, where it costs a lot of money to raise these animals, would have a higher award or purse than the kid with the little rabbit,” Barkett said, “but it’s important to all of them.”
Meanwhile, the San Mateo Event Center, which will lose about $100,000 in state fair funds, is predicting no impact on the nine-day San Mateo County Fair in June.
The event center, with a budget of $8 million, is largely self-sufficient and does not receive a subsidy from the county.
“We’re operating this facility as if we’ve lost the funding already,” General Manager Chris Carpenter said.
Read more at the San Francisco Examiner: http://www.sfexaminer.com/local/bay-area/2011/03/county-fairs-plan-around-budget-ax#i