Supporting Crisis Centers

A rally today at the State House will protest the new Massachusetts budget, and rightfully so. Last week, the House of Representatives released a mutated version of Governor W. Mitt Romney’s budget. Although cuts were expected, what was hidden under the Department of Public Health’s yearly budget was appalling: a provision that would strip all state aid from rape crisis centers, which serve thousands of domestic violence survivors annually.

Providing aid to survivors of violent crime is a basic obligation of the state. Nonetheless, Romney’s budget put funding for rape crisis centers on the chopping-block—not for a mere reduction, but for complete annihilation. Now that the House’s leadership—under the inept decision-making of Speaker Thomas M. Finneran, D-Mattapan—has kept this horrific cut in the proposed budget, this grave duty falls to the Senate leadership and to the House’s membership.

The $2.3-million cut from the state budget looms larger because of federal and private matching funds and would spell disaster for the 19 crisis centers based in Massachusetts. Last year alone, these centers handled 13,397 hotline calls and provided counseling services to 2,726 victims. Further, many of these crisis centers are over 70 percent dependent on government funding, and this budget cut would almost certainly force their closures—leaving the individuals they have helped without any assistance.

Even if legislators do not see the inherent wisdom of providing needed aid to the downtrodden, the funding allocated for these crisis centers and domestic abuse programs is minuscule when compared to the cost the public will bear if the state provides less care.

In situations where women have nowhere to turn, they are likely to stay exactly where they are—in abusive households—and recidivism is all but guaranteed. The more abuse individuals face with fewer refuges to turn to will only increase the cost of mental health care for domestic-abuse survivors. Similarly, without centers for all rape victims, subsequent mental health costs will be much higher. The governor’s willingness to cut funding for crisis centers, coupled with the legislature’s acquiescence, reflects a pathetic naivete on the part of Massachusetts’ political leadership regarding the realities of sexual abuse. Despite the budget numbers Romney and the Democratic House may want to produce, these crisis centers are necessary social services that ultimately save money, not expendable government waste.

This cut is only one of the reactionary budget reductions that have precipitated from Massachusetts’ looming fiscal deficit. If anything, these centers needed more money from the government to operate—not less. One look at the numbers should be enough to convince careful legislators that the aid rape crisis centers provide is well worth the cost. When compared to the $3-billion spending gap, the elimination of $2.3 million from a vital public service can only be categorized as absurd panic cutting. If Romney meant his promise to stand up for the little guy, he can keep it by saving these centers and suspending the income tax rollbacks instead.

It is shameful that anyone would need to make a case for the necessity of this funding. Unquestionably, the decision of nearly 14,000 victims to turn to hotlines for help was hard enough. Putting the organizations that have saved the lives of women, men and children out of business is not merely tragic, it is obscene.