In discussing this year’s planned $300 million budget cuts, Governor Tim Kaine has emphasized that education, public safety and public health will be protected. "Throughout this difficult process, we made a determined effort to keep these budget cuts from impacting our most vulnerable citizens," Governor Kaine said in an October 1 press release. "In fact, we rejected proposals to cut programs such as Meals on Wheels, children’s mental health, safe indoor plumbing projects, free health clinics and campus security."
Yet that doesn’t seem to mean that the cuts don’t affect local programs involving both children and public safety. The cuts have the potential to adversely affect local juvenile crime prevention programs, many of which have already fallen on hard times, in a crucial way.
 Rory Carpenter, juvenile justice coordinator for the local Commission on Children and Families, will lobby the General Assembly to make sure budget cuts don’t get worse. |
To help make up its $641 million budget shortfall, the state cut $10,000 in grant funding from the Charlottesville/Albemarle Commission of Children and Families (CCF), an organization that channels state funding to local child and family assistance programs. CCF receives $408,152 in grants from the Virginia Juvenile Community Crime Control Act (VJCCA), a 1995 General Assembly resolution that funds community based programs for at-risk youths. Locally, those dollars go to organizations like Legal Aid’s Just Children, juvenile court probation programs and various after school programs for teens.
The cut isn’t much, but the CCF budget was already slashed dramatically in 2003, and grant funding still hasn’t recovered. The organization received around $1 million in VJCCA funds prior to that 51 percent cut.
"A lot of programs folded," says Rory Carpenter, CCF’s juvenile justice coordinator, of the 2003 state budget cut. "In Charlottesville, we were able to tighten our belts and find ways to work around those cuts. If we took another major hit like that, it would be difficult to provide the services that, I think, play a large role in lowering juvenile crime and prevent kids from getting involved in the juvenile justice system."
The local organization hasn’t disbanded any individual programs as a result of cutbacks, according to Carpenter. This, however, is a possibility if the financial situation worsens, he says, adding that the organization would attempt to make additional cuts equitable across all programs to ensure their continuity.
Carpenter says that the CCF and other related organizations are planning to lobby lawmakers in Richmond against any potential cuts in the next year’s state budget.
"There has been some shortsightedness in the General Assembly," says Carpenter, adding that a number of crime prevention programs have received cuts since Republicans took control in the state legislature. "The key is, these programs need to survive no matter who is in control to the benefit of the general public and the kids that they serve."
C-VILLE welcomes news tips from readers. Send them to news@c-ville.com.
