Sherrie Tinoco has never been more frightened about the future of her work helping survivors of domestic violence than she is now. That’s because the main funding source for victim services in Washington state is projected to be cut in half before the end of next year. The Victims of Crime Act State Plan funds services for 52,000 crime victims a year. About 70% of all victim services funding flowing through Washington’s Office of Crime Victims Advocacy comes from the plan, reports the Washington State Standard. A few years ago, the state plan was funded entirely through federal dollars from the Victims of Crime Act. Federal money has been steadily declining — from $74.7 million at its high in 2018 to about $17.8 million last June, the lowest amount in a decade. The dollars come from fines, forfeited bonds and other financial penalties in certain federal cases, which makes the federal funds volatile. “In the time that I’ve been in the field, we’ve lost five domestic violence programs in the state of Washington,” Tinoco told lawmakers last month. She has worked at Emergency Support Shelter in Longview since 2005. “If nothing changes, there’s many more programs that are going to be having those same conversations about if, when and how to either dramatically cut back services or shut their own doors. We can’t let that happen,” Tinoco said.
A few years ago, the state decided to kick in $40 million to keep funding for the state plan steady — but those supplemental funds are set to expire next June . The Department of Commerce, which oversees the state Office of Crime Victims Advocacy, is requesting another $51 million for the 2025-2027 biennium. The department is asking lawmakers to pass a bill ensuring funding for the crime victims fund continues into the future. Under the requested legislation, the state would start by kicking in whatever’s needed to make the fund total $50 million — including federal funding — before slowly increasing the aggregate total to $70 million. If the state doesn’t provide more funding, more than 140 organizations could take a financial hit. These include nonprofits and local and tribal governments that provide services for victims of crimes like domestic violence, sexual assault and child abuse. “I represent a large agency that is arguably among the most financially stable of all the standalone programs — yet we are disaster planning,” said Kate Krug of the King County Sexual Assault Resource Center.
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