Governor Kathy Hochul’s decision to add $36 million in state funding for victims services organizations is welcome news. But for Orange County — and for the survivors who depend on these services — it is not nearly enough.

The governor’s additional funding brings New York’s state investment in victims services to $88.8 million this year, supplemented by $73.7 million in federal funding. The administration calls the combined $162.5 million the largest single-year investment in victims services in state history.

That is an impressive number.

But numbers can be misleading if we don’t look at what is happening on the ground.

In Orange County, the reality is that one of the organizations victims have relied upon for years, Fearless!, is still facing a 10% reduction in state funding. Its allocation has fallen from $1.6 million last year to $1.4 million.

And according to the Office of Victim Services, no other organization in Orange County was awarded funding under the new allocations.

So where is the benefit to Orange County?

If the state takes $200,000 away from an established organization serving Orange and Sullivan counties, but does not put that money into another victims services organization in Orange County, the result is not an expansion of services.

It is a reduction.

That distinction matters.

Fearless! is not an abstract line item in the state budget. It is a Newburgh-based organization serving people in our communities who have experienced domestic violence, sexual assault and other forms of trauma. Its employees and advocates work directly with survivors who need help navigating some of the most difficult moments of their lives.

When funding is cut, the organization has to make difficult decisions. Staff positions, programs, caseloads and the number of people who can be served are all affected.

And the demand for those services does not decline because the state grant does.

In fact, the opposite is often true.

The same problem is occurring just across the river in Dutchess County, where Family Services of Poughkeepsie continues to face a 35% reduction in state funding, from $865,000 to $563,000, even after receiving an additional $123,000.

Assemblymember Jonathan Jacobson is right to call for the full restoration of funding for these established organizations.

The state should also listen to what Jacobson and local providers are saying about the funding process itself.

There was a record number of applications for OVS funding this year, including applications from new providers. Expanding the number of organizations receiving funding may sound good on paper. But if that expansion comes by taking substantial amounts of funding away from organizations that have been providing services for years, the state needs to ask whether it is actually improving the system.

There is nothing wrong with supporting new organizations. New ideas and additional services can be valuable.

But the state should not be playing a shell game with victims services.

It should establish a reliable funding floor for organizations with proven track records and then provide additional funding to support new providers and address unmet needs.

Instead, established organizations have been left scrambling to figure out how to provide the same services with substantially less money.
That is not sound public policy.

It is particularly troubling in Orange County because the consequences are not theoretical. Fearless! is a critical part of the local network available to survivors. If its capacity is reduced, there isn’t another newly funded organization standing by to fill the gap.

The state has essentially acknowledged that the original funding levels were inadequate by coming back with another $36 million.

We appreciate that response.

But Albany should not have to be reminded that victims services are essential.
Governor Hochul has said that supporting crime victims and survivors is personal to her and that her administration will continue to support the organizations that serve them. Those are important words.

Now they need to be backed by action.

Fully restore the funding.

Fix the funding formula.

Protect organizations that have demonstrated that they can deliver these services effectively.

And make sure that future funding decisions do not leave communities such as Orange County with fewer resources than they had the year before.

Because when government cuts funding for a victims services organization, it doesn’t eliminate the need for the service. It simply shifts the burden somewhere else — onto an already stretched nonprofit, onto its employees, onto law enforcement and social services, or, worst of all, onto the victim who may have nowhere else to turn.

We should be clear about what is at stake.

A victim who finally reaches out for help should not hear that the program is full.

A survivor should not be told that there aren’t enough advocates.

A child should not have to wait because the state decided that an established provider could somehow do the same job with one-third less funding.

And Orange County should not be expected to accept fewer victims services while Albany celebrates a record statewide investment.

This is not the place to cut corners. It is not the place to experiment with whether fewer resources can somehow produce more services. And it certainly is not the place to balance competing priorities on the backs of victims and survivors.

New York has the resources to do better.

It should do better.

Fully fund the organizations that victims already trust. Then build on that foundation. Because when a survivor reaches out for help, the state should make sure the answer is “yes, we’re here for you” — not “we don’t have the funding.”