The 20 percent cut in state funding to the University of California system is not trivial and will substantially affect the lives of many students and faculty members. Education is a quality-of-life issue ““ a momentous, protest-and-rally-worthy one. It’s inspiring to see the students and faculty passionately take on an issue important to the UC community.
However, it would be more inspiring if we advocated for those whose issues are so often unheard.
In 2004, 186,439 Californians made calls for assistance related to domestic violence and 163 people in Calif. were killed by an intimate partner.
In August, Gov. Schwarzenegger abdicated his responsibility to these people when he line-item vetoed 100 percent of state funding to domestic shelters and centers.
For the average center, this is a 40 percent budget cut, leaving only non-state funding. But for other centers, the cut is devastating enough to close their doors. Six of the 94 centers that support survivors of domestic violence have been closed in just two months.
Other centers and shelters are cutting services and closing remote offices, meaning that domestic-violence survivors may have less access to essential services, and what services they can access will be limited. Many centers are only able to keep the most basic services ““ those that provide temporary safety ““ and have to cut those that most effectively empower survivors to leave their abusers. Programs that provide legal services, counseling and transitional funding have been cut in order to keep emergency services.
In September, the state Senate had a chance to reinstate this funding after the state Assembly unanimously passed the bill. However, Republican senators blocked the bill to refund the programs.
According to the Los Angeles Times, Senate Republicans blocked the bill that would reinstate domestic-violence-shelter funding because the state Democrats wouldn’t eliminate a state program that helps low-income families prepare their tax returns for free.
While the state tax-return program may be distasteful to the Republican small-government ethos, it’s difficult to believe that tax returns alone are enough to make Republican senators cut vital funding to the shelters and centers that provide life-changing, even life-saving resources to domestic violence survivors.
Unsurprisingly, this political tragedy has more to do with money than morals. Intuit, the maker of TurboTax, a private tax-preparation software, has donated to the campaigns of 29 of 40 state senators and has lobbied for the dissolution of the state tax return program.
Even if these campaign donations are not the Republican’s motivating factor, they are still putting the lives of Californians on the line for the sake of a state tax program.
When contacted for comment, Senate Minority Leader Dennis Hollingsworth could not be reached. He did comment to the Los Angeles Times that the issue was whether Democrats “abide(d) by agreements,” and not necessarily any specific program. The Democrats had promised to consider cutting the tax program.
Cutting domestic violence shelter funding is surely never popular, but it’s also not the type of issue that has a majority of the population upset enough to say something.
Where are the rallies? Where are the protests? Where are the swarms of volunteers uniting to make up for the state’s neglect?
Domestic violence is so pernicious in part because of people’s unwillingness to talk about it.
There are several shelters and centers in the Los Angeles area that accept the help of volunteers on a regular basis.
Hopefully, the tremendous success of UCLA’s Volunteer Day and the activist spirit of protests on campus will spill over to help the many people in Los Angeles affected by domestic violence.
Domestic violence prevention advocates hope to bring the bill up when the legislature reconvenes Oct. 13.
E-mail Ohlemacher at
dohlemacher@media.ucla.edu.
Send general comments to
viewpoint@media.ucla.edu.