Banner Graphic, Volume 21, Number 180, Greencastle, Putnam County, 4 April 1991 — Page 3

Senate panel won’t bet on casinos in Indiana

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) Supporters of a bill to legalize gambling in casinos, riverboats and offtrack betting theaters are looking for new ways to advance their proposal after it was rejected by a Senate committee. “We’ll keep looking for opportunities until we adjourn,” said Sen. Earline S. Rogers, D-Gary. THE SENATE Finance Committee voted 8-6 Wednesday against House Bill 1899, which would legalize casino gambling in Gary, French Lick and West Baden Springs, permit gambling on Ohio River excursion boats and allow off-track betting on horse racing. The vote prevented the measure from moving ahead to the full Senate for a vote and forced casino advocates to search for another vehicle for their proposal, which passed the Democratic-controlled House 51-49 last month. “I think it still has an awful, awful lot of life in it,” said Gary Mayor Thomas V. Bames. “The chances of it passing are still good.” THE DEFEAT doesn’t doom the bill because, under legislative rules, any measure approved by one house of the General Assembly is

Hoosier finances

Committee rejects tax increase, approves defic

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) Senate Republicans say they’re not ready to suggest a solution for Indiana’s fiscal crisis. Senate Finance Chairman Lawrence M. Borst says the Republicans will wait as Democrats feud over whether a tax increase or rainy day fund should be used to help public schools avoid cuts. “IF WE CAN’T get agreement among the Democrats, why, I’m not about to solve the problem here today,” Borst said Wednesday. “I’m willing to solve the problem, or try to solve it, two weeks from now in conference committee, but not now.” Gov. Evan Bayh claimed the Indianapolis Republican and other GOP members of the committee were shirking their duties by appoving a budget proposal Wednesday that would create a $333 million deficit by July 1993. “What took place today in the Senate was essentially an abdication of responsibility because the majority party in that body is unwilling to address the fiscal

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eligible to be included in reports of House-Senate conference committees later in the session. Sponsors of the measure also could attach it to another bill. “It’s never over until it’s over in the Indiana General Assembly,” said Rep. Charlie Brown, D-Gary. The defeat of the bill surprised many casino supporters who believed until late Tuesday they had enough votes to get the bill out of the committee. EIGHT OF THE nine Republicans on the committee voted against the measure. Five Democrats and one Republican, Sen. Joseph V. Corcoran of Seymour, voted for the bill. The key vote was cast by Sen. Sue Landske, R-Cedar Lake, who was expected by casino advocates to support the bill. However, Landske voted “no,” denying the bill the second Republican vote it needed. “She had said all along she knew this was right for Gary,” said Rogers. “She was a ‘yes’ vote.” CASINO SUPPORTERS said Sen. James A. Lewis, a Charlestown Democrat who was absent for the vote, would have showed up to vote “yes” if his vote would have

problems of our state,” Bayh said. THE REPUBLICAN-controlled Senate Finance Committee rejected a tax increase proposed by Senate Democrats but voted 8-5 along party lines to send an unbalanced budget to the Senate floor without recommendation. The budget was amended by Republicans to remove some S4OO million in bonding proposals, lottery money and fiscal maneuvers that Bayh and House Democrats used to balance their budget. GOP senators said they wanted to send a message that there’s not enough money to balance the budget unless the Democratic governor agrees to use the state’s reserves or raise taxes. “I DON’T CARE how much whipped cream you put on it. I don’t care how many maraschino cherries, it’s still $333 million out of balance,” Borst said. But Bayh disagreed that a balanced budget couldn’t be produced without a tax increase or using the state surplus and said the Senate offered no solution to the state’s fiscal

affected the outcome. Landske said she decided to vote “no” because her constituents opposed the bill almost 2-to-l. “After much soul searching, I changed my mind yesterday (Tuesday),” she said. “I had said ‘yes’ and ‘no.’” Landske acknowledged she had talked with Senate Republican leaders while weighing her decision, but she said “no one in any capacity in leadership applied any pressure to me to get me to change my vote.” IN A BRIEF debate of the bill before the committee, advocates of casino gambling argued it could help revive the sagging economy of Gary and northwest Indiana, hit hard by layoffs in the steel industry. “There is no single tool that provides the opportunity that the casino legislation before you does,” Barnes told the committee. Opponents argued that legalized gambling would bring a host of social ills, ranging from increased crime and alcoholism to chronic gambling. “We are asking you and appealing to you not to let this garbage into our community,” said Woody Benedict, a Gary mother of three.

cnsis. “They basically decided to punt and do nothing and I’m beginning to get the distinct impression what they really want is a special session,” Bayh said. BORST AND Sen. Morris H. Mills, an Indianapolis Republican who chairs the Senate’s budget subcommittee, admitted their budget proposal was fiscally irresponsible, but said the governor had given them no choice. Bayh has consistently resisted suggestions that the state dip into the rainy day or tuition reserve funds to survive the recession, which will leave Indiana revenues an estimated SBSO million short in the next biennium. “The governor has put the Legislature in a box,” Borst said. BORST ALSO pointed out that Bayh has not even been able to gather the support of his own party. A majority of Senate Democrats appear willing to raise taxes to fund education, and none have said they support Bayh’s budget. Bayh said it was time for the

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Proponents of gambling in Indiana had hoped that the advent of riverboat gambling in lowa (above) would lead to casino gambling in Indiana. But the Senate Finance Committee voted

THE MEASURE also was opposed by Gary ministers and the Indiana Council of Churches. Testimony for and against the bill was strictly limited by Finance Chairman Lawrence M. Borst, RIndianapolis. Proponents of riverboat gambling and casinos in

it budget

Senate to pul its ideas on the table. “They’ve been sitting back for four months,” he said. “At this rate it’s going to be August before we get anything from the state Senate.” The finance committee also defeated two attempts by Senate Democrats to balance the two-year budget: one by raising SBOO million in new taxes and the other by using the state’s reserves and forcing government to become more efficient. THE TAX INCREASE proposed by Sen. Michael Gery of West Lafayette, ranking minority member of the committee, would have raised individual and corporate income taxes from 3.4 percent to 3.9 percent and increased the cigarette tax from 15.5 cents to 23 cents per pack. Gery estimated that the House budget proposal endorsed by Bayh would create a balanced budget in 1993, but balloon into a $577 million deficit by 1995 because of deferred spending.

8-6 Wednesday to temporarily halt a bill to legalize casinos. However, Gary Mayor Thomas V. Barnes said he thinks the bill “still has an awful, awful lot of life in it.” (AP photo)

French Lick and West Baden Springs didn’t get the chance to speak, and some gambling opponents also weren’t allowed to talk. Explaining the limits on testimony, Borst said the gambling issue had been thoroughly discussed

Spelunker is rescued after four days in Carlsbad cave

CARLSBAD, N.M. (AP) An explorer with a broken leg was pulled from the nation’s deepest cave early today after a four-day ordeal, yelling “Yee haw! ” as she emerged. “Oh, the stars are out tonight,” Emily Davis Mobley sang after her aluminum and mesh stretcher poked up from the 1,565-foot-deep, 54-mile-long Lechuguilla Cave just after 1 a.m. SHE IMMEDIATELY telephoned her her husband, William, in Schoharie, N.Y. “This is your loving wife, coming up from the depths of the Earth to see you,” Mobley said. “I’m wonderful. It was made a lot more of a big deal than it was,” she told him. The 40-year-old woman was taken to Guadalupe Medical Center in Carlsbad, her leg in a splint. “SHE’S IN REAL good spirits, her vital signs real stable,” nursing supervisor Katie Hardin said.

April 4,1991 THE BANNERGRAPHIC

in recent years. He also said his committee had a full agenda of other business, including a proposed state budget BEFORE THE vote was taken, Borst said he expected criticism if the bill were defeated.

Mobley’s husband, reached at the couple’s home, said: “She isn’t exhausted. She’s in great shape. She’s an absolutely incredible person. She can’t be very comfortable being in there.” “I feel like calling everybody. I called her parents. I called one of our closest friends in Tokyo,” he said. “I feel great.” The rescue effort drew some of the nation’s top cave rescue experts to the cave in Carlsbad Caverns National Park. MOB ELY, A 22-year cave explorer and expert in cave rescues, was about 1,000 feet down and two miles into the cave Sunday when an 80-pound rock she had been holding onto gave way and fell on her, breaking her left leg below the knee. The undeveloped cave in a remote area of the park is closed to the general public. The National Park Service lets a limited number of experienced cave explorers in to explore and map it. Mobley was part of a mapping expedition.

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