KSHB 41 reporter La’Nita Brooks covers stories in Kansas City, Missouri, and stories offering solutions on crime. Share your story idea with La’Nita.
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Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe has until the end of June to sign Missouri's 2027 fiscal year budget. His original proposal called for $54.5 billion in total state spending, with all funding for victim services eliminated.
Since January, victim service agencies have been traveling to Jefferson City nearly every week, pushing for at least $15 million of the usual $25 million to be restored. Lawmakers ultimately approved $9 million for the budget.
Agencies say that while this still leaves a significant funding gap, it is better than having nothing at all.
Lisa Flemming, CEO of Rose Brooks, said the impact of the shortfall will be felt across the Kansas City metro.
"Upwards of 6,500 victims of child abuse, domestic violence, sexual violence will not be able to access or have very limited access to services," Flemming said.
KSHB 41 reporter La'Nita Brooks asked Flemming whether the funding gap would impact her agency's operations.
"You know, that's where we're doing everything we possibly can at an agency level to engage the community in this," Flemming said. "We're running on a pretty tight budget as it is, but looking at ways we can save money."
Child advocacy agencies would also be impacted. Lisa Mizell, president and CEO of Child Protection Center, said the work her agency does is critical for children who have experienced trauma.
"Every child that comes through the Child Protection Center has experienced a significant trauma," Mizell said. "They've either been physically or sexually abused or witnessed violence. We see kids that witness domestic violence or homicide. Being able to give them a safe place to tell us what happened to them, to facilitate the investigation with law enforcement. That is vitally important."
She says the agency would have to review its budget line by line to find savings.
"Taking a look at what percent of a raise we can give people," she said. "We'll take a look at our training budget, and we'll kind of go through the budget item by item and make sure it's something that we absolutely need."
Agencies are calling on the community to show support by contacting the governor's office to ask for funding to be reinstated or by making direct financial donations.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
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