Deep uncertainty over victim assistance funds comes as 4 women are killed in Maine

As police investigate the homicides of four women over the last three weeks in Maine, people who work with crime victims are also dealing with deep uncertainty over the federal funding that pays their salaries.

Maine victim assistance organizations are once again anticipating a drastic decline in their primary federal funding source — the Crime Victims Fund — that would endanger their ability to provide legal services for victims of abuse, support survivors of human trafficking, answer helplines, accompany rape victims in the hospital, provide housing for victims of elder abuse, and assist victims through police investigations and prosecutions.

In Maine the funds have historically paid for victim witness advocates who help victims navigate the criminal justice system, domestic violence resource center staff who help people plan for their safety, sexual assault response center staff who support rape victims, professionals with children’s advocacy centers who conduct forensic interviews of children who were abused, and other services.

But despite an attempt to replenish the federal Crime Victims Fund, federal lawsuits over who should get the money are preventing millions of dollars from flowing freely to states such as Maine.

As a result, organizations and governmental agencies across the state are bracing for a loss next fiscal year that could be greater than the current year’s federal funding shortfall of $6 million. It is too soon to know a precise estimate of the coming shortfall, however.

Victim assistance organizations asked for and received state funding to fill in this year’s federal funding gap and now plan to ask the state government again for ongoing funding to offset future federal losses, they said.

Entities that receive the money include Pine Tree Legal Assistance, district attorney’s offices, the attorney general’s office, the judicial branch, Immigrant Resource Center of Maine, the Elder Abuse Institute of Maine, Legal Services for Maine Elders, children’s advocacy centers, the Maine Coalition to End Domestic Violence, the Maine Coalition Against Sexual Assault and others.

“If we were to experience what at this point is estimated to be even more than the 60 percent reduction that we were facing a year ago, it’s completely unsustainable,” said Francine Garland Stark, the executive director of the Maine Coalition to End Domestic Violence, which faces the largest potential loss of Crime Victims Fund money in Maine. It mostly passes on the money to regional domestic violence resource centers.

“We’re not going to be anywhere near the level of funding from this resource than in the past for at least several more years. In the meantime this is the opportunity for the state to step in to really look at the level of investment that seems appropriate in an ongoing way to ensure the availability of these critical services,” she said.

The Crime Victims Fund was established by the Victims of Crime Act of 1984, or VOCA, to support victim assistance programs nationwide. Its money came not from tax dollars but the deposits of fines and penalties paid by convicted federal offenders.

But as federal prosecutors began entering into more agreements with defendants instead of prosecuting their cases, any monetary penalties from settlement agreements flowed into the general fund of the U.S. Treasury instead of the Crime Victims Fund. To address the issue, Congress passed a bill in 2021 to require funds collected from deferred prosecution and non-prosecution agreements to go to the Crime Victims Fund.

But that law has not yet had the intended effect of restoring the fund because legal challenges to the payouts of two settled federal cases have put millions of dollars in limbo. Terrorism victims have sued the Justice Department arguing that they are the ones entitled to criminal fines from British American Tobacco and the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, Binance .

While litigation is ongoing, the Crime Victims Fund has far less money to dedicate to states for their victim assistance programs next year, said Kristina Rose, director of the Office for Victims of Crime, within the Justice Department, on Thursday. Its current unencumbered balance is $294 million compared with an end-of-year balance of $9.17 billion six years ago.

Due to the pending lawsuits, the Justice Department has agreed not to obligate its portion of the criminal fines from the Binance or British American Tobacco cases for the time being, Rose said.

Even if all of the settlement money is freed up before next fiscal year — which advocates in Maine said they doubt — it would still not be enough to make Maine programs whole, said Melissa Martin, the public policy and legal director for the Maine Coalition Against Sexual Assault.

“The complexity of that size of litigation makes us really nervous that money won’t be freed up, and, even if money is freed up, that it won’t be enough money to bring us back to, in Maine, the $9 million that we would need,” Martin said.

Faced with an impending shortfall for victim services last year, Maine lawmakers passed a bill in March, LD 2084 , sponsored by Sen. Anne Carney, D-Cape Elizabeth, that would have provided state money to make up for federal losses of up to $6 million each year until the federal money returned. In the end, Gov. Janet Mills’ supplemental budget approved $6 million in one-time funding for the current 2024-2025 fiscal year but not ongoing funding.

Organizations are planning to soon ask the state again for continual funding given the level of uncertainty, Martin said.

“We really think that that’s appropriate because we can’t see a situation where the state wouldn’t want to ensure that at least these basic, core services are being met. Not approving this funding is equivalent to a massive, more than 50-percent cut in victim services across the state,” she said.

Back-filling the loss in existing funding wouldn’t even address the reality of rising costs, Martin said. Keeping organizations whole would avoid a massive cut, but the money won’t go as far as it would have several years ago.

Sexual assault support centers have recently cut positions to increase their starting annual wage to around $45,000; they couldn’t fill open roles with a prior base pay of $35,000, Martin said. Advocates accompany rape victims during their hospital stay, help them fill out protection orders and answer calls to a 24/7 helpline.

The discussion about funding comes in the wake of four domestic violence-related homicides in Maine in the last three weeks.

Police said an ex-boyfriend killed Virginia Cookson, 39, on Sept. 25 in Bangor. The next day, a man killed a woman with whom he had had a relationship, Lacey Tidswell, 32, of Mexico, according to the Maine State Police. Most recently, a man fatally shot his wife and daughter — Lisa Bailey, 58, and Jennifer Bailey, 32 — on Oct. 6 in Bath before killing himself.

“All I have to do is pick up the paper every single day — every single day — and look at the cost of domestic abuse and violence, as just one of the kinds of victimizations, and recognize how much this is costing the state of Maine in terms of human life, in terms of poverty, in terms of child wellness and ability to thrive,” Stark said.

“Unless we invest in victim services to help people be free from abuse and violence, and raise their children beyond that experience in a safe environment, we’re going to continue to live in a state where people turn from crisis to crisis — every one of those crises costing the taxpayers more than it would cost us to attend to people who are saying, ‘Please help me,’” she said.

If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic violence and would like to talk with an advocate, call 866-834-4357, TTY 1-800-437-1220. This free, confidential service is available 24/7 and is accessible from anywhere in Maine.

Erin Rhoda is the editor of Maine Focus and may be reached at erhoda@bangordailynews.com .