One of the tragedies of the budget “deal” was that many domestic violence shelters’ budgets were dramatically slashed.  Many of them would simply have no other choice than closing their doors either permanently or for part of the year.  Obviously, this is a dangerous “solution” that emerged from the minds in the Horseshoe.

Sen. Leland Yee (D-SF/Peninsula), on the other hand, was no huge budget supporter. He voted for a handful of the bills, but voted No more than most senators.  And then Governor Tuffy McBloodyHands decides to veto funding completely for 94 centers.  Now, this may or may not be legal, but something needs to change.  Thinking about this horrible disaster forced him to work on some other solutions.  He thinks he’s on to one with a bill he’s bringing to the legislature.

“I don’t know why he did it. This puts kids and moms at risk,” said state Sen. Leland Yee, D-San Francisco/San Mateo.

The program faced a 20 percent budget reduction before Schwarzenegger completely eliminated funding for 94 domestic violence shelters in the state.

“It is absolutely vital that we keep domestic violence shelters open,” said Yee, who voted against cuts to the domestic violence program. The veto increases health care, law enforcement and other costs to the state and puts victims of domestic violence and their children in grave danger, he said. …

Yee said his legislation allocates $16.3 million from the victims’ compensation fund, with a current balance of $136 million, to the Domestic Violence Program. (San Mateo Daily Journal 8/5/09)

Hopefully this is an urgency measure, but the Governor’s people are saying that the fund is being spent at a pace that it will be gone by 2012.  Yee debates those figures, but I’m sure the Legislative Analyst will have something to say on this one.