Two more Catholic groups endorse Issue 27

Less than a week after Issue 27 won the endorsements of three major religious coalitions--including the Archdiocese of Cincinnati -- two individual Archdiocese offices made a separate announcement Wednesday re-iterating their support.

"These two wanted to call attention to it and make sure people know that they specifically support Issue 27," said Dan Andriacco, Archiocese spokesman.

The Offices of African American Catholic Ministries and Catholic Social Action sent a memo to all pastors and pastoral administrators of Catholic parishes in Hamilton County.

In it, Rev. Royce Winters and Tony Stieritz acknowledged that Issue 27 is controversial, and the tax increase may be a burden to some low-income residents. They also said more still needs to be done to make the justice system completely fair.

"However, we are deeply concerned that, given the increasingly inhumane housing of inmates in our current system and reliance upon the Butler County jail system, that Hamilton County will soon be forced to address its overcrowding problem, perhaps in a much less comprehensive manner," they stated. "Our offices feel that the Comprehensive Safety Plan may be our best option to deal with an imperfect situation while still incorporating more life-giving alternatives.”

The Cincinnati Archdioces, effectively endorsed the sales tax last week when the Metropolitan Area Religious Coalition of Cincinnati (MARCC) endorsed it because the Archdioses is MARCC's largest member.