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Funding squeeze: victim-services director warns of VOCA cuts and unstable special funds
Summary
Center officials told the committee that federal VOCA grants and state special funds that help support victim services have declined or are volatile, putting community programs at risk and creating staffing and service uncertainty.
Jennifer Pullman, identified herself as the director with Vermont Technical Financial Services, and Carol Broscher, director of finance and administration for the center, told the Judiciary committee that victim-services programs across Vermont rely heavily on federal Victims of Crime Act (VOCA) grants and on state special funds that are funded by fines and surcharges — both of which are unstable and at risk of sharp declines.
Pullman told the committee the center oversees dozens of subgrants, provides technical assistance and that the unit is small: “We are that weird state agency that nobody really talks about. We have, 19 employees, 2 of whom are full time,” she said, describing a high administrative burden for a small staff. Pullman said the center administers victim compensation and restitution programs and manages roughly 60 active subgrantees and 260 subgrant awards that require quarterly reviews.
The nut graf: center officials raised alarm about an expected cut to VOCA funding and growing volatility in special funds that support victim compensation, restitution and domestic-violence services — trends that they say threaten local programs and staff and complicate services to victims who are waiting on criminal-case resolution.
Pullman and Broscher described the funding picture. They said VOCA funding to the state is expected to fall from about $3,000,000 last year to roughly $1,900,000 in the current year — a reduction of about $1.1 million — and that ARPA-funded grants that supported programs will end in September, removing roughly $750,000 in temporary support. The center also administers three state special funds (victim compensation, restitution and domestic-violence), which rely on surcharges and fines; Pullman said the compensation fund has declined about 50 percent over five years and restitution about 33 percent.
Committee members asked what the center can do to stabilize services. Pullman said reliance on federal and surcharge-based funding is ‘‘not sustainable’’ and that many community providers have been level-funded for years, leaving them unable to absorb cost-of-living increases. She added that operating under unpredictable federal award timing and an executive-order freeze briefly earlier in the month created immediate threats to shelters and other providers: “We had a program that provides services and support for victims of sexual assault… [say] ‘We’re going to have to close down the doors,’ because how could I operate when I don’t know if I can pay my people to do this work?’”
The center asked lawmakers to consider more stable state support and to examine collection and priority-of-payment procedures for surcharges and fines. Pullman noted prior state reviews that recommended changes, including a modest surcharge increase implemented after a 2021 joint fiscal office report, but said the increases have not produced projected revenue and that special funds remain volatile.
Ending: Pullman and Broscher asked lawmakers to consider options to shore up victim-services funding before VOCA and ARPA supports expire, and to examine whether changes in how surcharge and fine proceeds are prioritized could reduce volatility in the three small special funds that the center administers.
