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Chris Schreiber California legislators are poised to appropriate the first installment of the state’s $25 billion settlement with the tobacco industry for the general fund, thwarting a last-minute effort by the public health community to capture the money for anti-tobacco programs. The budget, expected to be approved by June 30, the end of the state’s fiscal year, allocates the state government’s entire $562 million first installment to the general fund. Healthcare advocates and anti-tobacco groups had been lobbying for the money to be used for a healthcare trust fund that would guarantee its exclusive use for health projects. The news deflated the hopes of a loosely formed healthcare coalition spearheaded by Sen. Joe Dunn, D-Garden Grove, who as recently as the beginning of June was optimistic that Gov. Gray Davis would submit a new budget excluding the settlement funds. However, Davis remains steadfast in his desire to keep the tobacco dollars earmarked for the general fund, said Hilary McLean, the governor’s deputy press secretary. It’s not just California lawmakers who want to use tobacco settlement funds for programs unrelated to health care. Across the country, settlement money has been awarded to projects ranging from prison construction to scholarships. The Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids, an anti-tobacco lobby in Washington, D.C., estimates that at least 17 states, including California, have proposed spending less than 2 percent of their settlement awards on tobacco prevention. Dashed hopes Public health groups had been hoping the money would be used to create a permanent fund to pay for health-related programs. "We’re disappointed. From our perspective, we thought we were going to persuade the governor and the Legislature that [a healthcare trust fund] was the best thing for the health of Californians," said Paul Knepprath, assistant vice president of government relations for the American Lung Association of California, part of the coalition. "We had come together as a very broad coalition and represented a diverse group of interests in unified manner. We felt very hopeful … but now we have to continue to try to secure future settlement money for a healthcare trust fund." Still, the new budget should increase healthcare spending, experts say. According to Stan Kubanski, program budget manager for the state Department of Finance, the plan would increase spending on health and human services via the general fund by about $400 million. In addition, California is one of the few states that has other ways of funding tobacco-prevention programs. Proposition 99, passed by voters in 1989, taxes tobacco products and uses the money for projects ranging from anti-tobacco TV ads to education for schoolchildren about the dangers of tobacco. The tax has generated as much as $100 million a year. Local level Public health groups say the tobacco settlement money isn’t being used for public health programs on a local level, either. As part of the California settlement agreement, four cities—Los Angeles, San Jose, San Diego, and San Francisco—and all counties together receive half of the state’s share of the national settlement. In Los Angeles, about $8 million of the approximately $14 million initial payment is being spent on federal compliance with the Americans With Disabilities Act, said Los Angeles Deputy Mayor Jennifer Roth. Some of that money will be used to fix and create handicapped-accessible sidewalk curbs. Less than $2 million will be spent on health care and tobacco control, and the rest will be spent on inner-city parks, Roth said. But advocates predict a grim future unless the state focuses on anti-tobacco programs. "If we don’t address prevention in a very serious fashion now, in 35 years we’ll be right back where we are today, and we’ll have no recourse," Dunn said. |
