New Integrated Victims Assistance Division faces funding cuts; council warns shelters, prevention programs could be hit

Department of Public Safety witnesses told the House Finance subcommittee that FY26 will show both organizational change and funding pressure for victim services: the department consolidated the Council on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault (CDVSA), the Violent Crimes Compensation Board (VCCB) and victim navigator services into a new Integrated Victims Assistance Division, but some revenue supporting prevention and victim compensation is projected to decline.

“Within this component, we have consolidated the Council on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault, the Violent Crimes Compensation Board, and our victim navigators into one appropriation,” Diana Thornton said. Commissioner James Cockrell noted the department recently appointed a director to lead the new division.

Marybeth Gagnon, director of the Council on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault, told lawmakers the slide showing decreased funding reflected a reduction from the recidivism reduction fund. Gagnon said the department is looking at roughly a $300,000 cut to prevention programming tied to that fund and is prioritizing avoiding cuts to the grants line if possible. “What our primary priority always is is to not cut our grants line, if possible,” Gagnon said.

Committee members asked the Violent Crimes Compensation Board director—identified in the hearing as Director Shanklin, who appeared on the phone—to explain VCCB funding. Shanklin said VCCB’s funding comes from the crime victim compensation fund, which the VCCB primarily builds from “PFDs that are withheld from convicted offenders.” She said the VCCB’s federal match (about 70 percent) applies only to payments made directly to victims; reducing the amount paid to victims also reduces the federal match, amplifying the budgetary impact.

Shanklin and Gagnon warned that a projected decline in federal Victims of Crime Act (VOCA) funding—cited in the hearing as a projected drop of about 39 percent—alongside state revenue changes could materially reduce available services. Gagnon told the committee the council is estimating that, by FY27, the overall effect could be a $5.5 million to $6 million deficit across related programs without additional support; she said the council is assessing what core services to protect and what program elements (for example, media messaging, child programming and in-shelter mental-health services) could face reductions.

When asked whether shelters could be at risk, Gagnon told the committee, “There could be depending on what we decide with the fiscal impact and what that will look like, but that is a possibility.”

Ending: DPS officials said they will seek to preserve grants and front-line victim services where possible, but warned the committee that projected declines in non-UGF revenue and federal matches could force cuts to prevention messaging, child programming and in-shelter mental-health supports without supplemental or new funding.