Editorial: Lawmakers Must Fix Consequences of Cutting Victim-Services Funds
Legislators know their actions sometimes lead to unintended consequences. They pass a law that addresses one problem but has the effect of creating an unanticipated problem of a different sort. It’s an almost unavoidable risk when dealing with complex, multi-layered issues that are always evolving.
But then there are consequences that are entirely foreseeable, in which all of the attendant warnings are sounded and the red flags are waving for all to see.
Those are the consequences that should keep lawmakers awake at night.
When Iowa’s state legislators imposed deep cuts in funding for domestic violence programs this year, they did so arguing that the cuts would have little or no impact on services. In the process, they OK’d a 26 percent reduction in funding for the state’s victim service program, resulting in a loss of $1.7 million in funding for the year that begins July 1.
