DES MOINES - Crime victim

advocates including Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller said Wednesday that

domestic and sexual abuse assistance programs across the state will have to

shut down or combine services if the Legislature doesn't provide millions of

dollars in funding.

During a news conference at the Capitol, Miller said the state has helped fund

victim service programs for about 30 years. However, during the last round of

major budget shortfalls in 2002, lawmakers eliminated the funding for

community-based domestic assault and sexual abuse victim services.

Since then, officials have raided the Victim Compensation Fund - a state fund

which pays for out-of-pocket expenses, such as medical treatment and burial,

to victims of violent crimes - to help pay for the other programs.

Miller said the fund is depleted and cannot continue to provide the money

needed to help operate the state's 31 domestic assault and sexual assault

programs for the next fiscal year.

He and other crime victim advocates are asking Gov. Chet Culver and the

Legislature to appropriate $4 million to maintain the current level of funding

for the programs, which helped nearly 27,000 Iowans last year.

Public safety has to be paramount, even during tough economic times, Miller

said.  ''Despite the enormous financial crisis that looms ... we need to make sure

that we fund these kinds of programs because they are so important and they

go to the basics of why we have a government in the first place,'' he said.

Federal funds and nonprofit donations also help pay for the victims programs,

but $800,000 in federal funding was cut last year and like everyone else,

nonprofits are struggling with the economic downturn.

Without state appropriations, victims advocates say as many as nine programs

in Iowa, serving an average of four counties each, will have to shut their

doors. That means a longer response time for domestic and sexual abuse

victims, who will have to travel further to find shelters and other services.

Beth Barnhill, with the Iowa Coalition Against Sexual Assault and the Iowa

Coalition Against Domestic Violence, said that during the last round of funding

cuts nine programs had to close in areas such as Knoxville, Shenandoah and

Cherokee.

She said with more cuts possible there would likely be a greater impact on

rural areas where there isn't as large a pool of local funds and donations to tap.

''Women are at greater risk and less likely to seek help when they are forced

to leave their communities, jobs and take their kids out of school in order to

seek shelters which may be several counties away from their community,'' she

said.

The advocates made their plea for funding less than a week before the

Legislature reconvenes for the 2009 session.