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Bill would add hate-crime property damage to victim compensation and maintain targeted victim funds
Summary
SB 62 would expand eligibility for victim compensation to include certain hate-crime property damage, create a small remediation pot, allocate funds for the Attorney General's victim-witness advocates, and continue funding for human trafficking victim services at a reduced level.
Teresa Benitez Thompson, chief of staff to Attorney General Ford, told the committee that SB 62 would amend Nevada's victim compensation provisions to add victims of crimes defined in NRS 193.167 through 193.200 and provide targeted funding for three purposes.
"We are seeking to add a new type of victim'...a person who's a victim of a crime of NRS 193.167 through 200," Benitez Thompson said, describing the change as specific to victims of hate crimes and noting a new remediation payment for property damage.
Under the bill language described to the committee, the change would add eligibility for a victim compensation program run by the Department of Health and Human Services and propose a $1,000 remediation payment for victims of hate-crime-related property damage. The sponsor said the $1,000 figure responds to common out-of-pocket costs such as insurance deductibles.
Section 5 of the bill would create three separate funding "pots": $30,000 per fiscal year for the hate-crime property remediation payments (the sponsor said this was sized using an incident count of 27 property hate crimes in the prior year), $20,000 per year for victim-witness work supporting the Attorney General's prosecution efforts, and continuing support for victims of human trafficking at a reduced level (the sponsor said last session appropriations were reduced from an initial $1,000,000 request to $200,000).
Marco Rauda of the Nevada Policy Council on Human Trafficking testified in support. There was no opposition testimony during the hearing. Benitez Thompson said the Department of Health and Human Services will refine eligibility and application details in its victim compensation manual to ensure program administration dovetails with current practice. The committee held the hearing and did not take a vote during this session.
