Assembly Budget Subcommittee No. 6 on Public Safety

I do understand that Member Eloise Gomez Reyes was here and so we'll wait to see if she comes back to ask the question that she is ready to ask. After that, then we'll have public comment. But right now we'll go around the dais, does the Vice Chair of any comments? Thank you.

And do we have the participants on the web? Okay, well, thank you for giving of your time. I know we went through a lot of these topics with the hearings that we've had, different presentations.

This geared is geared towards informational and it was open to any Assemblymember that would like to ask any questions on the budget itself. And I do know that Assemblymember Eloise Gomez Reyes does have some questions. So we'll give her a little time to settle in and then she'll be able to ask those questions.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. And thank you for the opportunity to join you at this very important meeting. I do want to thank OES for including the paragraph about the funding for the victim service programs and specifically about the money we're losing from the federal funding. Can you give us an idea?

Initially, we had been told it was $200 million. Is it $103 million now?

Hello, Stephen Benson with the Department of Finance. Yeah, we have worked with Cal OES. I'm sorry, with the Department of Finance. We have worked with Cal OES. It looks like in order to maintain like current level of service, they project that it would need about $103 million in terms of a federal backfill.

Well, I will tell you that I'm very grateful that that item number four was explicitly included and calls out the reduction of 45% in grants funding to the service providers. If I may have just a moment, Mr. Chair.

Go ahead. Is there any other questions from the dais? It's open to geared towards any department, but if you could ask, state the department ahead of time so they can be ready.

A question for CDCR. Do we have somebody here? Yes. Okay. And it has to do with the dollars given in relation to. I have a dysfunctional mic. Can I be heard? Okay. It has to do with the dollars given in relation to the 10,000 vacancies.

Do we have any idea where those dollars are going and how much is going where? Like to overtime, general fund. Do you have any direction there?

Amy Jarvis, Department of Finance and I am joined today by colleagues online as well. And I did see this issue in the agenda, and I think that it was specifically called out that there are specific items of expense for the medical program.

And I'm not prepared to give you the detailed breakdown today, but I think we can follow up with something after this hearing.

Okay.

Thank you so much. Any other questions? Thank you, Miss Gomez Reyes.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Going back to the VOCA funding, I understand that there are over 400 service providers in the State of California who rely on these services or on this funding for their services.

Is there a plan for where survivors would be able to receive services if these programs are unable to serve them due to budget cuts?

So I believe we have some representatives from the Department, from Cal OES online that probably would be able to provide better detail on that.

Do we have them online?

Yeah, this is Eric Swanson from Cal OES. Can you hear me?

Yes.

The question was about the survivors grant, is that right?

Just asking. Since we have, we're losing $103 million for these programs that are providing services under the Victims of Crime act. Where do we, is there a plan for these survivors? Do we know where they can go to receive services if the programs are unable to serve them due to the budget cuts?

Are there other places for these vulnerable individuals to go?

First of all, let me emphasize that this is, as we all know, this is a federal cut, and we are as discouraged with it as everyone else. I would say that for some of these programs, they will receive a smaller amount than they received in the past.

And for some programs itself, it may be that we end up having to provide less resources or no resources for some programs that don't get approved through the request for proposal process. There will be services available. There will still be nonprofits providing services.

It may be farther away than before, or it may be that they have less resources, but I think that's what we're left with.

So are we saying that the survivors, if I may, Mr. Chair, are we saying that the survivors can go to other nonprofits to receive these services and these other nonprofits have money that is, other than from the VOCA funding?

For some of these nonprofits, I would say VOCA is one of the largest, the largest sources of their income. Others may have other funding sources as well. They are nonprofits, so I'm not privy to all of their funding sources, but we believe there will be some sort of resources still available.

And the resources are coming from where? So that I can better explain to our providers.

There is a lower amount of federal funding that has been approved in the federal budget for VOC. As you know, Voca is tied to fines and fees for crimes. So there is a lower level that we will provide.

And then some of our programs, we've, as I said, we've kind of, what we've done is said we're going to try to, although we're going to have the same amount of folks get the grants, the amount may be lower just so we can hit the, the mark that the feds have provided us.

Thank you.

Thank you for that. And thank you for the clarification of the funding from the Federal Government dealing with VOCA. But we know that there still is a void that providers are still looking for. So thank you for the clarification on that. Any other questions? Miss Gomez Reyes?

Not at this time, Mr. Chair.

Okay. Any others? Are you ready for your question? Are there any more time, Miss Gomez?

I think more so to make a statement that we understand these services are core to prevent our survivors from being further victimized. And this is a support for some of the most vulnerable people after being victimized. And I think we spend a lot of money, a lot of time, a lot of effort on homelessness.

And that is part of the services that are being provided to our victims of crime. And my big concern, as is the concern of many of us, is that by taking away this funding, we're taking away the services and we are also setting people up for homelessness.

As you know, Mr. Chair, we did provide a letter signed by 46 colleagues from the Assembly alone, bipartisan, more than half of the democratic members, more than half of the Republican members who have asked that we take care of the victims and make sure that we do not victimize them a second time. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you for your comments. Any other comments? Hearing none. This hearing is adjourned. Oh, public comment. Almot. Thank you for your comments, Miss Assembly Member Gomez Reyes. We did have a hearing on and centered around large discussion on the VOCA and the funding that's coming from that area. Go ahead.

Thank you, Mr. Chair and Members. Cory Salzillo on behalf of the California State Sheriff's Association, grateful to the Committee for Adding the VOCA item into the agenda. Grateful to Assemblymember Reyes for your tireless advocacy on this, on this important issue. We would urge the Assembly to support a backfill of this funding.

As noted, it affects victim services of various types, not the least of which is victim notification for offender status. And we would urge the final budget, that's when it's adopted, to include a remedy for this. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you for your comments.

Clifton Wilson, on behalf of the counties of Fresno, Madera, Kern and Tulare, all in strong support in requesting the inclusion of funding in the budget for fiscal year 24-25 to backfill the federal reduction of VOCA funding and limiting the reduction to services for crime survivors.

As stated, these services help some of the most vulnerable Californians receive services and funding cuts will result in a significant reduction in housing services, including emergency shelter, transitional housing, and housing first. Therefore, we urge your support in exploring other budgetary actions to ensure that appropriate levels of funding remain for the critical VOCA programs. Thank you.

Thank you so much for your comments.

I'm a little short for this. Hi, good evening. My name is Grace Glaser. I'm here on behalf. It's okay. Thank you.

I'm here on behalf of VALOR, California's sexual assault coalition, and want to thank the Assemblymember and Assemblymember Lackey for all the work that you are doing and just want to be here to urge how important it is to include funding for crime victim services in the final budget.

I have met with a survivor earlier this last week who unfortunately was not able to receive services due to the current backlog that rape crisis centers already experience. Survivors are waiting. They are becoming homeless. They are experiencing crisis after crisis and are at risk of being retraumatized.

I know I'm preaching to the choir here, but I really just want to emphasize the importance of colluding, at minimum $103 million in this year's final budget. Thank you.

Thank you for your comments.

Yeah. Good evening. Kim Lewis, representing the California Coalition for Youth.

And I won't repeat any of the comments made by my previous colleagues, but in support of backfilling the Victim of Crime Act funding as well, for our young people experiencing homelessness on the streets, we know that within the first 24 to 48 hours of them being on the streets, they are approached by a pimper panderer.

And when we have a lot of communities that don't have any sort of safe place for our young people to go, then they are going to continue to be victimized on the streets. And these dollars are very critical to support those nonprofits who are serving our young people.

And we don't want them to end up further victimized and appreciate anything you can do in this tight budget situation. And not just look at the upcoming year, but also the budget year plus one. Because you know there's gonna continue to be these challenges for our young people. Thank you.

Thank you for your comments.

Cher Gonzalez, on behalf of the 1Coalition to Abolish Slavery and Trafficking, this is the nation's largest services provider for human trafficking victims. That's an unfortunate reality that our state is home to the largest service provider for human trafficking victims. These cuts are catastrophic for these nonprofits.

We urge this Subcommitee to please put in at least the backfill of $103 million. We thank the Assemblymember for her leadership, and we, of course, thank the Subcommitee and staff for all that they've done on this issue. Thank you so much.

Thank you for your comments.

Good evening. Glenn Backes, for the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, we would be budget neutral if we closed five prisons or fewer. We could fully fund victim services, rehabilitative services, inside and outside the walls. We could invest in victim services. As I just said, do not cut visiting days.

Invest in data transparency, and invest in intelligent defense, all by just cutting back on prisons. For the prosecutors Alliance of California, we strongly support the backfill of $103 million for victim services, as well as investing in rehabilitative services. One last sorry. And funding data transparency at the county level. Thank you.

Thank you for your comments.

Good evening, Chair and Members. Anthony DiMartino, on behalf of Californians for Safety and Justice and Crime Survivors for Safety and Justice. We organize over 50,000 crime survivors in the state. And speaking in support of the backfield for VOCA, as well as funding for the flexible assistance for survivors grant program.

Thank you so much.

Thank you for your comments. Any other public comment? I want to thank you all for being here as we had this informational meeting to afford Members opportunity to ask any questions they might have on the budget pertain to sub six. Thank you for the Members that partaked in that.

And we hear your comments, and we'll take those back in the Subcommitee. With that, this hearing is adjourned.

Thank you so much. Thank you.