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State Parks are not closing after all, but at least six domestic violence shelters around the state have closed due to a small, but devastating budget cut by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger over the summer. That's according to the Domestic Violence Center of the Santa Clarita Valley, which came close to being the seventh such closure.
With half of their funding cut, the center asked for the community's help and received some, but still was forced to layoff employees and find a new office location. The shelter home will not move, but the office will open next week in Valencia Industrial Center near Magic Mountain.
“I’m very pleased that the community responded positively to our request for a new home and that we are able to continue providing necessary domestic violence services to those in need at our new location," said Mary Ree, the center's Board President, in a statement. "Our 24-hour hotline, counseling programs and outreach services, such as our teen and bi-lingual programs, are an integral part of the social fiber of Santa Clarita and it is our mission to continue providing these services."
When the state legislature turned in a budget this Summer, Schwarzenegger used his vetoing powers to slash 100 percent, a little over $16 million, of funding for domestic violence programs. For Santa Clarita, that meant an immediate $200,000 loss, nearly half of their annual funding. In 2008, the center served over 1,000 victims of domestic violence.
The budget cut came as the center was dealing with a murder-suicide that left one woman dead. Soon after, a teenage girl was killed in her bed, allegedly by her boyfriend. Reacting to the cuts and recent violence, Assemblyman Cameron Smyth (R-Santa Clarita) co-authored a bill to restore the funding immediately.
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Schwarzenegger and the Republican state senators are bad news. It is the government's duty to protect citizens and to ensure their well-being. Schwarzenegger and the Republican state senators are not doing this. The funding priority for battered women shelters (BWS) should be the same as for prisons, because human life is at risk. Prisons keep the criminals and the murderers in, and BWS's keep the good people in, and the criminals and the murderers out. The Governor's illegal budget cuts, with the backing of big oil (Chevron Corp. of San Ramon), are very dangerous for women and children, who are victims of domestic violence, and it is sub-human. During a recession, with its higher unemployment, government funding for BWS's should be increased, not eliminated. Obviously, this budget picks-on the most vulnerable and it endangers children. If s battered wife is murdered in front of a closed-down BWS, then, Scgwarzenegger, his oil industry tyrants and the Republican state senators should be charged with first-degree murder.
Well put!