Cuts would impact victims' services

Proposed cuts to the state's budget for human services, including services to victims of domestic violence, threaten the safety of women across Illinois. If this budget is signed by Gov. Quinn, funding for domestic violence services in Lake County will be cut by 70 percent, more than $460,000. Without increasing revenue into the state's general fund, these proposed cuts will become reality, and will have a devastating effect on the safety of women and children.

A Safe Place has served victims of domestic violence since 1980. We have always received a portion of our funding from the State of Illinois, but have also been careful to seek funding from diverse public and private sources, including the generous citizens of Lake County, to support our work. We continue to seek the support of the community for our work; however, the abrupt loss of over $460,000 will force A Safe Place to examine how we provide services to victims, and may necessitate the closing of our emergency shelter and other program changes that will reduce number of women we can keep through our programs.

One in three American women will be the victim of domestic violence in her lifetime. If the proposed cuts are put into place, hundreds of Lake County women will be left without a means of escape. For the first time in our history, A Safe Place may be faced with having to refuse services to victims. At the same time, we will not be able to provide other resources of support to them, because those sources are facing the same cuts to program funding that we are.

Lawmakers have returned to Springfield having a difficult decision to make, and the people of Illinois have the right and the duty to share their opinion of the state's financial crisis with their elected representatives. By refusing to consider alternative revenue strategies, state legislators are keeping income taxes low at the expense of battered women and others in need. I fervently hope that Illinois citizens care more about their neighbor than that decision would demonstrate.

I urge you to contact your representatives in Springfield and let them know that you are willing to pay a bit more in taxes to provide services for people in desperate need of housing and safety.

Phyllis A. DeMott

Executive Director A Safe Place Zion