Indianapolis Recorder, Indianapolis, Marion County, 11 January 2002 — Page 2

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THE INDIANAPOLIS RECORDER

FRIDAY, JANUARY 11,2002

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Kids give adults a Reality Check on underage drinking

Orange Ribbon Campaign to launch its statewide activities to stop child alcohol consumption

Special to The Recorder The Indiana Coalition to Reduce Underage Drinking (ICRUD) will kick off the Orange Ribbon Campaign with three Reality Check Tours this month to increase awareness of underage drinking and to encourage communities to take action. Each Reality Check Tour is from 6 to 9:30 p.m. The locations are as follows: • Tuesday, Jan. 15: Purdue University, Wesley Foundation. 435 W. State St., West Lafayette. • Wednesday, Jan. 30: Indiana State University, Memorial Union, Terre Haute. • Wednesday, Feb. 6: Notre Dame University, Auditorium Center for Education in McKenna Hall, South Bend. The Reality Check Tour is a chance for students to create a dialogue with community leaders and other adults about the problems of underage drinking. This conversation is to give adults a “reality check” or the true story on the taboo issue that has permeated households and communities across the country. The Reality Check Tour is one of the activities of the Orange Ribbon campaign that was created by ICRUD in 2000 out of a student

action group. Youth in middle school, high school and college around the state recognized the need to highlight the problems of underaged drinking and to find a means to address it. Thus, the Orange Ribbon Campaign was established. The mission of the campaign is to use education and media outreach to make the orange ribbon the recognized symbol in changing public policy to reduce underage drinking and impaired driving. Last year, the campaign received overwhelming results. The Orange Ribbon Campaign touched 19,000 individuals in 29 different counties of Indiana by coordinating with different youth groups and school organizations. The organizers sent campaign catalogues that promoted messages of alcohol-free living. The organizers also initiated a billboard campaign in Lafayette and Indianapolis. The campaign received media coverage across the state. The format has been adopted by health-focused organizations in Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Louisiana and Georgia. This year, the organizers of the campaign seek to reach even more individuals. Following the Reality Check Tours, schools

and youth organizations will receive a premium catalogue and educational materials for distribution to students. Also this month, the Orange Ribbon Campaign will launch a radio campaign on Network Indiana that will target the adult audience about policies to reduce underage drinking. This spring, the campaign will host a recognition event. The event will promote youth that have pledged to be alcohol-free. The event is open to the public and will also serve as a fundraiser to help fund other programs aimed at reducing underaged drinking. On April 26, the activities of the Orange Ribbon Campaign culminate with a rally on Monument Circle in Indianapolis. The event will be planned in coordination with the statewide Students Against Destructive Decisions conference to be held at the Indiana Convention Center. The rally will be an opportunity for youth and adults to celebrate our youth who have made the commitment to be alcohol-free. For more information about the Orange Ribbon Campaign, call Patrick Wanzerat (317) 873-3900, or Tysha Hardy-Sellers at (317) 916-9231.

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reassessment will affect property tax bills in 2003. “I’m still of the opinion that we don’t know what we’re doing until we get all the figures in from reassessment,” Borst said. He said he planned to introduce a bill that would spread the property tax impact of reassessment over four years, thereby reducing the initial sticker shock on homeowners in the spring of2003. O’Bannon has asked lawmakers to raise taxes on cigarettes and riverboat casinos in order to close a budget deficit that threatens to leave the statd broke by July 2003. The plan would also suspend two

tax cuts approved in 1999, when the state was flush with money. The governor also has proposed a tax-restructuring package that would raise sales and income taxes to eliminate or reduce some local property taxes and shift some costs to the state. O’Bannon is to deliver his annual State of the State Address next week, focusing mostly on tax and budget issues while calling for bipartisan unity. His proposals have drawn mixed reaction from members of both parties. Republicans have repeatedly said they will oppose tax increases to cope with the deficit.

and not all House Democrats back the restructuring plan. But the governor remains optimistic, said his press secretary, Mary Dieter. “The governor really believes that he can work with both chambers and both parties in the Legislature to achieve what has to be done in this legislative session,” she said. Rep. B. Patrick Bauer, chairman of the budget-writing House Ways and Means Committee, said O’Bannon would have to use his bully pulpit to drive home the seriousness of Indiana’s fiscal woes. “The number one problem fac-

ing us (as legislators) is that the people don’t know,” said Bauer, D-South Bend. “They don’t know that there is a budget crisis ... and they don’t know that there is a pending property tax crisis.” Bauer’s committee held seven public hearings on O’Bannon’s proposals before the session began. He had another on the deficitreduction proposal Wednesday, and plans one on the tax-restruc-turing plan next week. He said it would take bipartisan support for either plan to pass the House.