Every seat in the Indiana legislature is a vote on public policy affecting you. The American Democracy Project at IU South Bend hosts a variety of candidate forums to help voters better understand the issues and where their representatives stand.This forum features candidates for Indiana House of representatives, challenger Dr. Donald Westerhausen MD and incumbent Dale DeVon. 

We encourage DISTRICT 5 voters to attend, but ALSO voters of other nearby districts.

Issues:

Along with Raise it for Health Indiana and Healthier Indiana, we are focused on raising the cigarette tax by $2.00 per pack. We ask our elected officials in the Indiana House to restore tobacco control funding to $35 million. Further, we seek to invest in public health, to lift Indiana from 49th in the nation for overall public health spending per capita.

• Indiana is a great state to do business, but ranks 39th in overall health. Smoking is a primary factor for the low ranking.
• Over 1 million people in Indiana smoke. That’s more than 1 in every 5 Hoosiers.
• Every year, smoking costs Indiana $3.17 billion in lost productivity and $2.9 BILLION in health care expenses.
• Raising the cigarette tax can help fund health initiatives to make Indiana a healthy place to do business!
• Tobacco use costs Indiana $6 billion annually, and secondhand smoke costs $2.1 billion in excess medical expenses and premature loss of life.

Call to action:

A $2.00 increase in the cigarette tax in Indiana will raise over $300 million in projected annual revenue. Raising prices is one of the most effective ways to reduce smoking.

If Indiana is going to be a ‘A State That Works” we need to build a healthier state. This is a tax that saves lives.