May 2, 2007

Church World Service needs your help in completing health kits

During the year the Indiana/Kentucky office of Church World Service, located in the same building as the Indiana Area office, coordinates pledges for the items within various kits for partners in need. Their goal this year is to assemble 3,000 Health Kits. However, there is a shortfall of pledges for some items to reach this goal. Church World Service needs your assistance in completing the health kits. The most critical need now is for 400 hand towels and 400 metal nail files (or nail clippers with file attached). This would be an excellent spring project for men’s, women’s, youth, or mission groups in your congregation, but the deadline is tight! Hurry – these items are needed before Tuesday, May 15. To pledge a certain number of one or both of these items, contact Gretchen Corn, CWS Program Assistant, at 317-923-2938 or toll-free 888-297-2767 or by e-mail at gcorn@churchworldservice.org. She’ll provide details and shipping or delivery information.

Ask Governor Daniels to veto HB 1835, the slot machine bill

Let Governor Daniels know you oppose HB1835, the slot machine bill. Ask for him to veto this slot machine gambling bill. Here are some reasons you can share with the Governor’s office. Call his office at 317-232-4567 or e-mail the Governor by following e-mail directions at www.in.gov/legislative/contact/.

Here is why Hoosiers oppose the slot machines at Anderson and Shelbyville. Here are concerns you can choose to communicate to the Daniels’ administration. We oppose HB1835, the slot machine bill because:

• It sets precedence for land-based casinos. Next year the 11 casinos will in all likelihood ask to be land based. This bill already provides that riverboats no longer need to navigate on water.
• It expands casino gambling to central Indiana. Around two-thirds of the social problems caused by casino gambling in Indiana today go home to other states. Two central Indiana casinos would bring a higher incidence of social problems in bankruptcy, foreclosures, bad credit risks, unemployment, employment problems, and most importantly family problems including neglect, separation and divorce through an increase in gambling addiction.
• This state already pays out more than $100 million a year in problems related to gambling at ten casinos located in Indiana, according to a January 2006 benefit-cost analysis done by the Indiana Legislative Council and the Indiana Gaming Commission. Do we, as a state, weigh the financial gains in tax revenue against what casino gambling cost Hoosier families?
• Indiana spends $1 million a week in law enforcement for the casinos here.
• HB1835 was originally proposed to strengthen the horse racing industry in Indiana, but now seems to be a bill more about adding state revenue to offset property taxes statewide.

Why we oppose this expansion of legalized gambling before us.

• The slot machine bill says it will provide 1,000 jobs at each race tracks. For the most part, these are low-paying, unskilled workers not the middle-income skilled jobs you are advocating for in your economic programs.
• HB1835 appears to be a tax relief bill to provide for broad-based property tax relief through slot revenue if signed into law.
• Our state government is addicted to the lucrative tax rates of up to 37 cents on the dollar rather than raising income or sales taxes to provide the needed revenue. We oppose the expansion of legalized gambling for tax relief.
• Slot machines have been called the crack cocaine of the gambling industry because they are highly addictive, especially to those who have not gambled in the past. Central Indiana will be a new market area for the gambling industry in Indiana with newly addicted gamblers.
• The closer citizens live to casinos or “racinos,” the higher the addiction rate.
• The majority of people who gamble using slot machines are women.
• Legalized gambling is anti-family. Children and youth are banned from casinos.
• Legalized gambling is more than a moral issue, it’s an economic issue and bad for the state’s economy in the long run. What happens when the lucrative retirement funds of today’s senior citizens run out?
• The Boomer, Buster and Millennium generations don’t have expendable cash like their parents and grandparents; they live on lines of credit. The expansion of legalized gambling is diminishing that accessible cash to other economies in the state.
• Each addicted gambler affects the lives of 17 others including family members, friends, neighbors, business partners, employers, and members of organizations including churches and civic clubs.
• On the average, addicted gamblers spent $47,000 a year on their habit. Money many of them don’t have but borrow without any intention of paying it back causing an economic crisis with credit – their own and others.

At the end of your call, thank the Daniels’ administration for his service to the State of Indiana.

Provide your name, address and phone number including area code. Remind the Governor that you vote and that church members include a high percentage of voters.

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