Legislators get a limited number of bills in the short February session and state Rep. Jason Kropf, D-Bend, is using one of his to help organizations, such as the Kids Center and Saving Grace.

Kropf worked as public defender and deputy district attorney before joining the Legislature. He knows well the role the Kids Center plays in helping children, families and the community with child abuse and Saving Grace‘s role in helping survivors of intimate partner violence.

And these types of organizations need state budget help.

“The way they are calculated in the budget is they are always a perpetual one-time funding source,” he said. “The goal of the organizations I am working with and myself is: How do you make that funding a little more stable and a little more permanent? I am thinking about what the Kids Center does and what Saving Grace does. They are piecing together grants from different places every year. They are piecing together individual fundraising and foundational money and I think doing incredible work in our community. My goal on the state level is to create a little more stability in their funding sources.”

He would make funding for these sorts of organizations more akin to the way schools are funded — more on an ongoing expectation. The conversation with school budgets starts with an acknowledgment of what level of service the schools are providing and what is necessary to sustain it. Kropf wants to see that approach for state’s funding for victims of crime.

Legislators are always going to have budget conversations about priorities and what should get what. More certainty for organizations that help survivors of crimes is a good way for Oregon to improve justice.