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Lorillard Payments to be Redirected to Escrow Account 

Lorillard Tobacco Company ("Lorillard") announced today that it will utilize an escrow mechanism under the Master Settlement Agreement ("MSA") with respect to its payments to the National Public Education Fund (the "Fund") and the MSA Foundation because the American Legacy Foundation ("ALF") has in the past, and continues to date, to misapply the Fund in violation of the MSA. Moreover, ALF has made it clear that it intends to continue to engage in conduct that is prohibited by the MSA and that disqualifies ALF from acting as the MSA Foundation.

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EDITORIAL: Unhealthy for Michigan / Health lobby's ballot plan would subvert the state Constitution 

It is no exaggeration to say that the Healthy Michigan Amendment would corrupt the Michigan Constitution and the system of representative government that it provides. State constitutions, following the federal example, are supposed to provide frameworks for decision-making. They aren't supposed to take funding choices out of the hands of the people's elected representatives. If the "Healthy Michigan" tactic prevails, look for other lobby groups -- conceivably for K-12 education, the environment, labor, universities, parks -- to make their own bids for parts of the state's revenue and lock them forever into the Constitution.

The Healthy Michigan Amendment thus is a cynical subversion of representative government, though it won't look that way in the ads soon to be filling television screens, radio airwaves and newspaper pages across the state. The situation creates an obligation for responsible organizations and leaders in each Michigan community to speak out and make the case for good government. On Nov. 5, that will mean a "No" to what definitely would be an unhealthy change for Michigan.

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LOTT: AG Power Grab / Out of control in Connecticut.  

The last decade has seen state attorney generals use the power of the courts to shape public policy in unprecedented ways. Among the most aggressive in litigation ranging from tobacco to guns has been Connecticut's Richard Blumenthal, though for Blumenthal this was just the warm up. Even if the ideas that he is now advancing fail in Connecticut, they provide a dire warning of what other state attorneys general may soon start trying. . . The grab for power also crosses ethical lines. Two of the law firms that Blumenthal contracted with to sue the tobacco companies were run separately by his former law partner and his partner's wife. Blumenthal's defenders claim that other law firms simply didn't want the job. In a Connecticut Law Tribune article, however, a few lawyers disagreed, one complaining that "we didn't ever get a meeting" with the attorney general's office and another saying that his firm wasn't included despite agreeing to the state's contractual terms. Blumenthal's former partner, David Golub, acknowledged,

"I know how it 'looks' — he's my former partner ..."

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EDITORIAL: Biotech's new leaf  

In its disclosure last week of a plan to invest $70.4 million of the national tobacco settlement money as a stimulus to the state's economy, especially in the biotechnology industry, the nonprofit Golden LEAF Foundation gave North Carolinians a lot to chew on. . .

There's hardly an absence of risk in what the Golden LEAF Foundation proposes to do. For the first time, for example, it will be taking about $18 million from its capital funds to round out the grant program. Heretofore, its $16 million in grants for some 100 projects has come from investment income.

Yet North Carolina, after all, is in a strong position already when it ranked fourth in the nation last year in bioscience with its 14 publicly owned and 73 privately held companies. With this much to build on, the investments of venture capital in sizable amounts could prove to be a real catalyst.

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EDITORIAL: Wise Use Of Tobacco Funds [Source: Greensboro News Record] 

The Golden LEAF Foundation is spending North Carolina's tobacco settlement money precisely as intended.

Foundation members apparently have avoided the temptations that seduced many of their counterparts at the Tobacco Trust Fund - who seem mostly seemed interested in self-enrichment and prolonging the state's continued dependence on tobacco. Instead, they have chosen to invest in projects with the potential to diversify the state's economic base. . .

True, by targeting biotech for investment, Golden LEAF is not betting on a sure thing. But anyone following the stock market lately knows there are no sure things.

In such a climate, the foundation is giving North Carolina a much- needed economic shot in the arm - exactly as it was designed to do.

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EDITORIAL: About that tobacco money 

States have argued they are free to use the settlement money to meet any needs (that's not what they were saying when they opened their legal assault on the tobacco industry). But the issue at stake is about more than short-term budget fixes. Legislators promised state residents in 1998 that they wouldn't squander their opportunity to save lives. They have partially made good on their word with many of the trust funds into which Florida's share of the settlement is allocated, the largest being the Lawton Chiles Endowment Fund. Created in honor of the former governor who fought to secure the settlement, the fund generates interest that pays for health care for children and the elderly.

The tobacco companies coughed up the settlement money, the lawyers satisfied their greed, and the states got their pot of gold. In some states, the only losers are the young smokers.

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• REED: What Happened To The Billions Due Blacks From Tobacco Settlement?  

Black neighborhoods continue to be shortchanged billions of dollars from the tobacco settlement. The question now is: How long will local and elected Black leaders allow this injustice against our communities to continue? Although much of the Master Agreement Settlement (MSA) monies gained from the tobacco industry were based on factual reports of African Americans having higher incidences of smoking and greater needs for group-specific health provisions, Black-oriented groups and programs are not in the loop. . .

Not enough of MSA monies are coming to our neighborhoods. The issue of how tobacco settlement funds should, and can, be helping us is one we should be pursuing with vigor at every level of our communities. Local leaders should contact groups, such as the National African American Tobacco Prevention Network - naatpn.org (919.233.7733) and South Carolina African American Tobacco Control Network - scaatcn.org (843.871.9439), which are dedicated to facilitating development and implementation of comprehensive and culturally competent tobacco prevention and control initiatives to benefit African American communities.

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EDITORIAL: Pass-the-buck public policy 

Gov. Scott McCallum's decision last week not to call another special session of the Legislature is most welcome: Based on what they witnessed during months of special-session thrashing on a budget repair bill, Wisconsinites now know that any extended gathering of their lawmakers can be a really dangerous activity. But the governor still intends to press ahead by making campaign issues out of the ideas he had in mind for that special session. He should reconsider. . .

We agree with those Republicans and Democrats who believe Wisconsin taxes on personal income, property and sales are too high and, if anything, should come down. This is a case against elected officials - the governor, apparently, and lawmakers who agree with him - who believe themselves incapable of making those difficult choices. In effect, such officials are saying: Please stop us before we tax again! . .

This is passing the buck, which is more or less what the Legislature did when it balanced the current budget mainly by pirating tobacco-settlement money intended for smoking cessation and health care programs. Voters have other ways to stop these folks short of submitting tax-and-spend issues to a referendum. If they don't like what these officials are doing, they can go to the polls and toss them out of office. [This graph only]

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LETTER: Big-tobacco jackpot  

The total fees for lawyers from 19 states came to $13.59 billion for the 1998 tobacco lawsuits.

After one state won its monstrous award, a sleazy, scummy looking lawyer announced on TV, "What a success for the children."

It sounded honorable to say the lawsuits were to recover costs for sick smokers. Now some of our state leaders can't wait to get their greedy fingers on tobacco money and spend it on anything they can.

The legal profession is getting worse than organized crime.

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EDITORIAL: Tennessee Spends Money on Tobacco Projects 

State after state are spending the tobacco money on projects that have nothing to do with public health.

Tennessee did it. In 2001, we poured our first three years of tobacco money into the state's general fund to avoid a tax hike. In fact, nation-wide, only five percent of the tobacco settlement money has been used for tobacco prevention.

Dr. John Seffrin, from the American Cancer Society states, "We are all sympathetic that in these difficult economic times every state has a tough budget to make. No one ever envisioned that kind of money new money, non taxed based money would go for potholes, prisons and golf courses."

Despite the lack of health spending, smoking levels are down since the settlement. For both teenagers and adults.

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EDITORIAL: While Virginia buries high-tech cable, Tennessee buries its future  

Last year, while Tennessee lawmakers were seizing three years' worth of tobacco settlement monies as a stopgap way to plug the state's growing budget deficit, Virginia lawmakers thoughtfully targeted the state's share of the multi-year, multi-billion dollar fund in a variety of innovative ways.

One local example, known as "e-58'' is making progress in Southwest Virginia.

Going in beneath the ground and beside water lines in the Tito community of Scott County are tobacco-funded fiber-optic links to the region's future economic development efforts. . .

Such projects will go far in aiding economic development in Southwest Virginia.

And, they will help improve the quality of life in the region by bringing high-paying jobs to an area that could certainly use them.

Meanwhile, in Tennessee, $560 million in tobacco settlement monies are gone - spent in a vain attempt to shore up a structurally inadequate revenue system. On top of that, Tennessee lawmakers voted this session to make the state's sales tax the highest in the nation, further discouraging economic development.

So much for narrowing the digital divide.

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LETTER: Tobacco money for development  

Am I the only one offended by Gov. Tom Vilsack's willingness to take $30 million from the tobacco lawsuit money and spend it on economic development ("Vilsack to Unveil Plan for Economic Development," July 17)?

The money referred to in the article is part of the tobacco funds and "earmarked for construction projects." I'm naively assuming the construction projects were somehow related to state health care since the entire basis of this lawsuit was to supposedly reimburse the states for past and future health-care costs associated with the evil of big tobacco.

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EDITORIAL: Fix this flawed law 

When the N.C. General Assembly began deciding how to use North Carolina's share of a $4.6 billion national tobacco settlement, Gov. Jim Hunt and other leaders proposed splitting the money between health care programs and economic development. A separate $1.9 billion settlement would take care of tobacco farmers who were seeing their tobacco profits drop because of widespread economic changes.

But when the state's tobacco farmers began howling that they weren't getting a big enough piece of the pie, the General Assembly folded like a cardboard box. Instead of designating 50 percent of the money for health-related programs, lawmakers cut that to 25 percent for health and the remaining 25 percent for tobacco farmers -- and then created the Tobacco Trust Fund Commission to dole out the money to farmers.

That was a bad idea then and an even worse one now. . .

As the Observer's Liz Chandler and Joshua Myerov pointed out recently, nine members of the Tobacco Trust Fund Commission collected $385,000 of the tobacco settlement money for themselves or their businesses. . .

In an age when shoddy ethics in corporate life have dominated the headlines, citizens who serve on public commissions must be mindful that they are not there to benefit personally. State lawmakers should fix the law that created the Tobacco Trust Fund Commission so it applies state conflict-of-interest laws to commission members and imposes ethical guidelines on how the commission can spend public money.

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LuMAYE: Throw the bums out  

This state budget may well be the most horrific piece of legislation ever composed by any body of so-called public servants. The complete lack of fiscal responsibility in this bill approaches historic levels. Self-serving, unconstitutional legislation and a plethora of fuzzy bribes for voters round out one smelly document.

It simply amazes me how tolerant the public can be of complete incompetence by its employees. . .

This "repair bill" repairs nothing. They have stolen what was once billions - yes, billions - in tobacco money to pay for their unrepressed spending habits and without even so much as a blink, self-importantly ordered the health department to check under the office cushions for a few million to keep minors from smoking. But then again, we're going need those kids smoking so we can collect the tax to improve the quality of life in this great state.

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EDITORIAL: Let Lansing choose how to spend funds 

Since the settlement was completed -- and even before that -- health care groups have argued that the funds should go toward smoking-prevention programs and other health initiatives. That's a compelling argument, given that the massive settlement is essentially an admission that smoking has cost states millions of dollars in health care costs over the years.

And we agree with lobbying groups who say that Michigan's record of spending none of the settlement on tobacco prevention programs is shameful. Michigan is one of three states that hasn't spent any of the cash on preventing kids from smoking, and that should end. Some of the money clearly should go toward keeping people from starting a dirty, nasty habit that commonly ends in death.

Toward that end, a group calling itself "Citizens for a Healthy Michigan" has put a proposal on the November ballot that would require 90 percent of the settlement money to be earmarked for a variety of tobacco prevention and health care needs.

The goal is good, but the method is wrong, and we urge a "no" vote. . .

According to Lee Dixon, who keeps track of health policy for the National Conference of State Legislatures, if the ballot question is approved, Michigan would be the only state where voters directed the settlement money away from the Legislature's wishes.

He said the NCSL has not taken a position on the Michigan measure, but that many lawmakers are against it because it would take away the responsibility of the government for a large amount of money.

We agree with those lawmakers.

Health care advocates should continue working to influence the legislative appropriation process, but shouldn't make an end run around it using a ballot initiative.

For one thing, some of the programs funded if the question passes have dubious connections to smoking. For instance, 13 percent -- or about $39 million each year -- would help senior citizens pay for prescription drugs, according to the group's Web site.

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