(9-25-07)
Lutherans urged to contact elected representatives about slots
The Rev. D. Lee Hudson, director of the Lutheran Office on Public Policy in Maryland, has issued a special alert calling on all Maryland Lutherans to contact their elected representatives regarding the proposed special session of the Maryland General Assembly. Here is the text of that alert.
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Governor Martin O'Malley has announced his intent to call a special session of the Maryland General Assembly. The purpose is to stabilize public funding for important public goods such as education. The special session may be convened the first week of November, for five days.
The Governor is now releasing information about his proposals to secure consistent funding for Maryland's vital programs and services and to make its revenue burdens more progressive. These are goals we support. Among the proposals is a $1 increase in the tobacco tax for an expansion of Medicaid eligibility to some 200,000 low-income Marylanders, which LOPP/MD has supported and continues to support.
We encourage these considerations, and we offer prayers for the Governor and the members of the General Assembly. But we continue to be troubled by and opposed to proposals for state-licensed gambling as a revenue policy consideration. Here are this church's concerns. LOPP/MD encourages ELCA congregants to talk about them within their parish communities and then with their state senator and their delegates.
On Revenue
Following commitments in the ELCA social statement, "Sufficient, Sustainable Livelihood for All" (1999), we advocate that Maryland raise sufficient revenue to provide for
- safe, stable, sustainable and thriving communities;
- needed human services including those supplied by non-profit service organizations;
- access to appropriate health care; and
- public supports for low-income and vulnerable people.
We appeal for
- progressive levies, according to means, fairly distributed across Maryland society, and
- scrutiny of tax credits and subsidies to assure that they serve the common good.
It is unlikely that there will be time in a special session for careful deliberation. We urge that the legislature not commit harm by their haste and that they solicit public review and inquiry.
On State-Sponsored Gambling
Maryland voters have voiced their opposition to state-sponsored gambling before. We again urge that our people, churches and networks send officials the simple message: "No slots." Here's why.
- Slot proceeds can't come for two to four years. By then the State's current fiscal problems will have been resolved, and slots won't have done it.
- Slots will shift a half-billion dollars of revenue burden onto poor subdivisions and diminish their host communities. That's not fair.
- Slots proceeds aren't new revenue; they're reallocated spending that reduces other revenue, primarily from the sales tax.
- Slots have to create more gamblers and greater losses to maintain their proceeds level.
- Slots enrich a small number of license-holders but not the common good.
No Special Session for Special Interests
We urge people of faith to communicate with their elected representatives on behalf of adequate revenues, raised progressively, without the corrupting, regressive policy of state-sponsored gambling. Here's a utility for finding your senator and delegates according to your home address. You can e-mail directly from this utility.