This weekend’s edition of the Butler Eagle revealed a startling statistic.

Ninety percent of clients served by Butler County’s Victim Outreach Intervention Center, VOICe, are children and youths — and the organization can’t afford to add additional staff to serve them.

According to Tracy Veri, VOICe executive director, a five year freeze on increases to state funding for rape crisis centers has left the organization without the means to hire an additional counselor to meet the community’s needs. According to her, the situation is forcing them to refer their clients — the majority of them, according to Veri, underage victims of sexual assault — to outside sources.

Funding for rape crisis centers has remained unchanged at $11.9 million per year since 2020. A number representing just 0.025% of the total 2024-25 state general fund budget of $47.6 billion.

Meanwhile, our elected representatives in Harrisburg are currently going through the process of crafting a state budget for fiscal 2025-26 after Gov. Josh Shapiro unveiled his proposal for spending early this year.

Shapiro’s plan would increase total general fund expenditures by about 7.5% to about $51.5 billion. However, that 7.5% does not include any bump for rape crisis funding, which is proposed to remain for yet another year at $11.9 million.

The Pennsylvania Coalition to Advance Respect, which allocates state funds to rape crisis centers, has advocated for an increase of $8 million in state rape crisis funding. While $8 million is a big number, an increase of over 67%, such an increase would only represent a 0.017% chunk of the budget, even at current spending levels.

In the words of Gabrielle Romeo, public policy director for the coalition, “The $8 million is just a rounding error for the state, but it would have a huge impact on our service.”

We call on our elected officials to consider allocating the comparatively minuscule increase in funding being requested. After all, aren’t some of our youngest and most vulnerable Pennsylvanians worth an additional fraction of a tenth of a percent of total yearly spending.

— JP