National group criticizes Idaho's tobacco-prevention spending
Jump to full article: Twin Falls (ID) Times-News, 2007-12-27
Author: Nate Poppino Times-News writer
Intro: Sure, Idaho may have the third-lowest smoking rate in the nation. Only 15.8 percent of the state's high school students smoke - the national average is 23 percent.
But that's not enough, said Bill Corr, executive director of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, a Washington, D.C.-based activist group. In a report released earlier this month, Corr criticized the Idaho Legislature and Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter for not spending more of the state's tobacco settlement and tax money on prevention efforts.
The state, he said Wednesday, will spend less than 2 percent of this year's income from tobacco taxes and the 1998 state tobacco settlement - an estimated $81.9 million - on tobacco prevention that meets recommendations set by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That, he said, secures Idaho's position "among the most disappointing" states.
"Tobacco still takes a very high toll, even though Idaho has a better-than-average rate," Corr said. His group estimates smokers - including the 1,700 new children under 18 who become regular smokers each year - cost the state $319 million a year in health care.
Fixing the problem, Corr said, would only require increasing funding from $1.4 million to $11 million, the minimum amount recommended for the state by the CDC. But legislators on the state's Joint Millennium Fund Committee - which provides spending recommendations to the Legislature - said they think the state has come a long way already and that their way of doling out tobacco funds works.
"And we don't have $11 million," said co-chair Rep. Dennis Lake, R-Blackfoot. "We take our best shot at how to use the money most efficiently."
That's partly due to the fact that the state's tobacco tax money - 57 cents per pack - is dedicated to renovating the state capitol building.
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