Domestic Violence Prevention Funds Sent Back To State's General Fund By Mistake

A spokesman for Gov. Mike Pence says Pence did not endorse or ask for a cut to domestic violence prevention funds.  But, more than $300,000 was apparently sent back to the state’s General Fund by mistake.

Each year, every state agency is required to send back some of its budget to the state’s General Fund.  The Indiana Criminal Justice Institute, the agency responsible for distributing domestic violence prevention funding, is no different. But its yearly reversion requirement is not supposed to come from domestic violence funds.  Last fiscal year, $344,000 of it did. 

Gov. Pence’s Deputy Chief of Staff John Hill, who serves on the CJI Board of Trustees, says that was not the governor’s intention.

“At no time did he direct anyone to withhold money or to lower funding for domestic violence," Hill said. "He did not endorse it, he did not direct me or anyone else in the administration to do that.”

State Budget Director Brian Bailey says it appears the money was mistakenly left out of a domestic violence dedicated fund.

Indiana Coalition Against Domestic Violence executive director Laura Berry says she was the one who alerted the state to the reversion, and she is still a little skeptical about the explanation.

“So if they work to get it back, you know, that’s a step in the right direction and then that’s a little more that we can give out,” Berry said.

Bailey says he hopes to determine why the money was sent back to the General Fund and return it to the domestic violence prevention fund within the next week.