Jump to full article: Jamestown (ND) Sun, 2008-05-05
Author: The Bismarck Tribune, The Jamestown Sun Published
Intro: Heidi Heitkamp was the attorney general who negotiated with big tobacco on our behalf. She and others want to increase the percentage of master settlement funds that actually have something to do with the problem of tobacco use.
They’ve come up with an initiative to force a change in the law. It’s been to the attorney general’s office for review and on to the secretary of state’s office. It went back to the initiators for final work and should be ready Monday for Secretary of State Al Jaeger to give final review and approval of the format of a petition to go out for signatures. The backers’ hope is that everything necessary will be accomplished so that the measure can be on the November ballot.
Heitkamp said that an average of $2.2 million of the payment to North Dakota each year is spent on programs dealing with tobacco use prevention or cessation. The proposal is to spend $9 million a year.
That doesn’t sound like much.
But $9 million annually is the amount the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention calculates this state should be spending.
Yes, at least that.
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