By Khalida Sarwari
A survivor of domestic violence stood before a crowd of city and community leaders in San Jose today to lament Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s last-minute line-item veto to cut all funding for the state program that provides aid to battered women.
Tamara Chukes, a mother of four, said she suffered through seven years of domestic violence before the Community Solutions’ La Isla Pacifica domestic violence shelter came to her aid. The Gilroy shelter is one of nearly 100 facilities across the state funded by the Domestic Violence Program, part of the Department of Public Health.
“Where would I be today if it weren’t for La Isla Pacifica? Chances are I wouldn’t have survived,” Chukes said. “I am horrified that my story will be the last success story.”
Chukes and other advocates gathered today for a news conference in front of a vacant house symbolizing a place where victims of domestic violence live behind closed doors. Advocates said the $20.4 million cut includes a loss of more than $800,000 in funding from four Silicon Valley nonprofit organizations that offer support to victims and their children and could leave victims vulnerable to injury and death.
San Jose Police Chief Rob Davis was present to decry the planned cuts, saying there were 5,000 domestic violence-related cases sent to the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office for prosecution last year. Three of those cases were homicides related to domestic violence.
“This cut is a public safety cut,” Davis said. “When we know what to do, it just doesn’t make sense not to prevent it.”
State Sen. Leland Yee, D-San Francisco/San Mateo, announced on Tuesday that he will introduce legislation to save the Domestic Violence Program with money from the state’s victim compensation fund so that local agencies can continue to offer emergency shelters, around-the-clock crisis hotlines, legal assistance with restraining orders and other support services that protect victims.
“Every penny we find is another life saved, another family that will stay together,” Yee said.
The allocation would help alleviate the loss of $20.4 million in funding that goes to 94 domestic violence shelters and centers throughout the state.
The cut will eliminate about $817,862 in funding to the Asian Americans for Community Involvement in San Jose, Community Solutions in South Santa Clara County, Next Door Solutions to Domestic Violence in San Jose and Support Network for Battered Women in Sunnyvale.
A spokesman with the governor’s office said the budget cut was a necessary move to balance the budget reserve.
“The veto is not based on the value of the services that this and other programs that were vetoed provide,” Schwarzenegger spokesman H.D. Palmer said.
Schwarzenegger had to resort to line-item budget veto, Palmer said, to keep a minimum of $500 million in the budget reserve after the assembly approved and passed down an unbalanced budget that did not take into account measures totaling $1.1 billion.
“The governor had to face the hand that he was dealt,” Palmer said.