Governor Dave Heineman says it'll take a shared sacrifice from state agencies to help balance the budget.

The governor is asking some of those agencies to dip into their own budgets and give the savings to the general fund.

As part of the shared sacrifice plan all state agencies are subject to across the board reductions of 2.5% in the current year and 5% next year.

Also under the governors plan, cash funded agencies will have to hand over any excess funds.

Those are agencies funded by fees only and they include groups like the Nebraska Corn Board.

The governor recommends the corn board transfer $200,000 from it's Corn Development Cash Fund or "Check-off Fund" to the general fund.

According to the corn board, check-off money is generated from the first sale of the first bushel of corn that farmers buy.

It gives the board nearly $3 million to work with.

Board members say check-off funds are farmer invested dollars, used specifically for corn promotion, development and research.

"The governor has said no new taxes. But we believe if he moves funds from our check off dollars, then he is actually creating a new tax by taking our dollars out of farmer invested funds," says Alan Tiemann, Nebraska Corn Board Chair.

"I wouldn't see this as a tax. No. This is simply an area where there is excess funds and we were able to go in and capture those funds that helps us meet our challenge,"says Jen Rae Hein, a spokesperson for Gov. Heineman.

Corn board members say taking check-off funds will cause a ripple effect.

The board says cooperating agencies like the U.S. Meat Export Federation, the U.S. Grain Counsel or the University of Nebraska depend on the corn boards funds to get matching funds from the federal government.

The governors office says if it doesn't transfer money from cash funded agencies, the across the board cuts would have risen dramatically to all state agencies.