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Secretary of State highlights Safe at Home growth, asks for access to fee revenue and updated county election funding
Summary
Secretary of State Michael Adams told the Budget Review Subcommittee the Safe at Home address‑confidentiality program removed roughly 20,000 internet items in four months and asked the legislature to allow his office greater access to fee revenue and to update county election funding.
Secretary of State Michael Adams updated the Budget Review Subcommittee on General Government on the Safe at Home address-confidentiality program and the office’s funding structure, asking legislators to allow the office more access to fee revenue and to adjust county election funding for inflation.
Adams said his office contracted a company in October to scrub personally identifying information from the internet and that the program had removed about 20,000 items in four months. “This program costs survivors and taxpayers nothing. It is funded by fines paid by the bad guys convicted of these offenses,” Adams said.
Nut graf: Adams asked the subcommittee not for general tax dollars but for greater access to the revenue his office generates and for the General Assembly to revisit county election funding levels, which he said remain at rates set decades ago.
Adams described three changes the Safe at Home Act made when the legislature updated it two years prior: reciprocity with other states, removing the requirement that survivors obtain a protective order before enrolling, and shielding participants’ addresses on state and local public records. He said participation in Safe at Home has risen about 500% since enhancements and that the program itself produces only modest revenue: about $3,000 a year from program fees, he said. Adams asked that the legislature either increase fines that feed the program, give his office a larger share of existing fines, or allow the office to spend a larger share of its own fee revenue to operate the program without tapping general tax dollars.
On elections funding, Adams urged the committee to update county election funding, noting current state allocations are 50¢ per registered voter per year and $255 per precinct per election—amounts he said were set in the 1980s. “I hope you'll pass such legislation again,” Adams said, referring to previous unanimous support to index or otherwise raise those amounts.
Ending: Adams said his office will not request appropriated tax dollars for routine operations this cycle but asked legislators to consider statutory adjustments to fund both the Safe at Home program’s growth and county election costs.
