(Spencer)– Those who provide services to victims of violence are keeping their fingers crossed that President Bush has a change of mind when it comes to a proposal to cut funding to the Victims of Crime Act, or VOCA.
The fund was established during the Reagan administration. It helps over 44-hundred agencies in the U-S who provide direct services to 3.6 million victims each year. One of those agencies is CAASA, or the Centers Against Abuse and Sexual Assault. CAASA Executive Director Jan Alfred says no tax money is put into the VOCA program. She says the funding comes from criminal fines, forefeitures and special assessments.
Alfred believes the Office of Management and Budget views that money as a surplus, when instead, she says, it’s a fund that was established with a very specific purpose.
Under the proposal to do away with VOCA funding, Alfred says by 2007 there will be no money available for any domestic violence program in the country.
CAASA receives about 100-thousand dollars a year in VOCA funding…and roughly 75-thousand dollars in state-aid each year. Alfred says if the VOCA funding goes away, so too will CAASA.
Special domestic abuse prosecutors in Emmet and Dickinson county would also be affected as they are funded with VOCA money.
(Story from Danielle Hitchings of sister station KDWD Hot 100 in Spencer.)
