National Training
Conference 2009: Washington, D.C.
The National Association of Crime Victim Compensation Boards holds
its National Training Conference September 29 - October 2, 2009,
in Washington, D.C., in conjunction with the National Association
of VOCA Assistance Administrators (NAVAA). We look forward to
our member programs joining in three full days of workshops on
the issues relevant to optimal operation of crime victim compensation
programs. More details are available at our partnering organization's
website, www.navaa.org/conf.
The Association's
latest newsletter
has been mailed to all compensation programs. Information about
VOCA grants and our recent Regional Training Conferences is included,
and we've got some results from recent surveys. New outreach ideas
are highlighted, and there's a primer on contributory conduct,
too.
REGIONAL Training
Conferences
The Association's
Regional Training Conferences for compensation-program personnel
were held in Hilton Head, SC, March 9-11, and in Santa Fe, NM,
April 13-16. Twenty states participated in the conferences, discussing
a wide range of issues. We appreciate the help of our host state
programs -- the South Carolina State Office of Victim Assistance,
and the New Mexico Crime Victim Reparations Commission.
Contact
NACVCB at (703) 780-3200; e-mail nacvcb@aol.com; P.O. Box 7054,
Alexandria, VA 22307.
Crime Victim Compensation Helps
Victims . . .
- Victims of violent crime and their families received
benefits totaling $461 million in federal fiscal year 2008.
This was an increase from the $426 million paid in 2005, the
$444 million in 2006, and the $453 million paid in 2007.
- Programs paid $29 million for forensic sexual assault
exams, continuing a dramatic increase for this cost, reflecting
more states compensation programs' involvement in this area.
- Assault claims formed half the caseload, with more than
a third of those claims coming from domestic violence victims.
- Victims of child abuse comprised 19% of the recipients
of crime victim compensation.
- Domestic violence victims were 22% of all adult victims
compensated (crimes other than child abuse, drunk driving, and
international terrorism). Of all assault claims, 35% are paid
to domestic violence victims.
- Medical expenses were 52% of all payments; economic support
for lost wages for injured victims, and for lost support in
homicides, comprised 16% of the total; 11% of total payments
went for funeral bills; and 8% went toward mental health counseling
for crime victims.
Click here for a
FACT SHEET on Crime Victim Compensation. Click
here for a current
contact list of state compensation programs.
- For information about an individual state
victim compensation program, click on the Program Directory
on the menu in the upper-left-hand corner of this page.
Essential VOCA for Compensation Programs
An effort to capture in a one-page summary all
of the essential provisions relating to compensation programs
contained in the Victims of Crime Act --
Click here to see. For Word
document version, click here. (This is an Association summary,
not from the Office for Victims of Crime.)
States Face Budget Problems
State legislatures may be eyeing crime victim compensation program
funding in some states in efforts to meet substantial budget shortfalls
in the coming year. Twenty-two states have projected budget gaps
for FY 2009, including shortfalls of 15% in California, 16% in
Arizona, 11% in Florida and Rhode Island, and close to 10% in
Alabama, New York, and New Jersey.
In prior years, several compensation programs' funds have been
raided by legislatures. Reminding lawmakers that many more victims
could be seeking compensation; that mass violence is always a
threat and would require sudden greater outlays to victims; and
that some "reserve" is necessary to prevent backlogs
may be among the strategies useful in countering unwanted compensation
fund reductions.
Compensation programs have struggled to keep up
with demand in recent years, with some states facing dire fiscal
crises. Some programs that have managed to do well fiscally have
then faced having funds taken away from legislatures for other
purposes. With cuts in private insurance and on the Medicaid rolls
(a byproduct of state budget crises), an explosion in health care
costs, and an increase in the violent crime rate (after 10 years
of decline), state compensation programs continue to seek sufficient
funding to provide adequate financial assistance to victims of
child abuse, domestic violence, rape, assault, and murder.
VOCA
Fund Developments -- FY '09
Economic Stimulus Package Includes Supplemental Grants for Victim
Compensation
The economic-stimulus law signed by President Barack Obama on
February 17 includes supplemental grants to state victim compensation
programs totaling $47.5 million. The Association calculates that
each state likely will get approximately an extra 27% in VOCA
funding, in addition to its regular VOCA grant in FY 2009. VOCA
assistance grants also will be supplemented by $47.5 million this
year. The money should be available to the states within a few
weeks, though details are being worked out by the Office for Victims
of Crime in the U.S. Department of Justice.
The outgoing Administration's budget for FY 2009 calls for $590
million cap, which when combined with some other adjustments to
VOCA spending, would result in nearly a 25% cut for VOCA assistance
funding from FY 2006 levels. In real numbers, this is almost a
$100 million drop in VOCA assistance grants to states. However,
it is likely that Congress will fund VOCA at a higher level. The
Senate is poised to approve its Appropriations Committee recommendation
of $635 million, and the House Appropriations Committee has passed
on to the House its recommendation for $650 million in VOCA spending..
Regular compensation grants to states this fiscal year (FY '09)
will remain at 60% of each state's payout in federal fiscal year
2007. Compensation grants from the economic stimulus package will
be in addition to regular VOCA grants. We calculate
that combining both the economic-stimulus supplemental grants
and the regular VOCA grants, each state will get approximately
76% of its state-payout from federal FY 2007. But we emphasize
that this is just our own estimate, and that OVC will provide
full and official details soon.
The website of our collegial organization, the National
Association of VOCA Assistance Administrators, is a superb
source for detailed information on VOCA budget and spending issues.
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