ALTO PASS (AP) – Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s decision to save money by dissolving a wine industry group has left a sour taste in the mouths of grape growers and winemakers in the state’s Shawnee Hills.

They say the decision will make it harder for people to enter the industry and hurt, disproportionately, a part of the state that desperately needs new businesses – the southern tip.

“He’s penny foolish,” said Guy Renzaglia, 86, who started the first vineyard in Illinois’ wooded hills near Kentucky in 1987. The six wineries and vineyards that have cropped up within a couple miles of him now form a wine trail that attracts tourists, adding jobs and money to a part of the state that’s short on both.

Renzaglia and his vintner neighbors attribute that growth to the Illinois Grape and Wine Resources Council at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale. They say the group, which did research, gave advice to growers and promoted the state’s vino, is a main reason Illinois’ wine industry has grown from 12 wineries in 1997 when the council started to 43 today.

But the council’s money runs out June 30 because Blagojevich, searching for ways to plug a budget deficit, cited it as one source of cash protected by lobbyists and special interests.

While the council will disband July 1, the governor has been persuaded by winemakers to keep some money for vintners in the state budget. He proposed including $300,000 for the departments of agriculture and commerce and economic opportunity to share to hire advisers and promote the wine industry, said Abby Ottenhoff, a spokeswoman for the governor. That’s less than the $500,000 a year the wine council used to get.

Some winemakers applaud giving the money to other agencies.

“(The council) didn’t do much for our interests up here,” said Fred Koehler, whose Lynfred Wineries in northern DuPage County are among the oldest and biggest in the state.

“We could use some highway signs and things of that nature,” Koehler said. “They never did that.”

With 19 of Illinois’ 43 wineries and vineyards located south of St. Louis, growers and winemakers in southern Illinois say the money Blagojevich proposed won’t go far enough in replacing a council that has helped the industry blossom from 140 acres of grape crops seven years ago to more than 800 acres today.

The council’s two full-time experts researched the grapes that can flourish in Illinois – a big unknown since few have ever been planted in the state, said Brad Taylor, an SIU biologist who has worked for the council.

A wine expert from the council helped Jim Ewers decide where he should plant Chambourcin grapes on the vineyard his family is building near Makanda.

“He brought out his equipment and walked my fields,” Ewers said. “He told me to plant on the side of the hill instead of on top of it, like I was going to do,” said Ewers, whose Blue Sky Winery and Vineyard is scheduled to open in May.

He, along with his neighbor winemakers, doubt the governor’s proposed $300,000 will be enough to replace the experts who used to help them.