BY MICHAEL HAWTHORNE
The Cincinnati Enquirer
COLUMBUS - Ohio stands to recover up to $9 billion from tobacco companies during the next 25 years under a tentative multistate settlement that may be announced as soon as Friday.
Even though the state has yet to extract a dime from cigarette makers, politicians and anti-smoking groups already are squabbling about how the money should be spent.
Health groups want a slice for smoking-prevention programs. Gov.-elect Bob Taft wants to spend some for school repairs and coverage for uninsured children.
Legislative leaders also caution that Ohio may get less money if the federal government claims a substantial share to recoup the cost of Medicaid coverage for people with smoking-related illnesses.
They may end up arguing over a shrinking pot of money. While Ohio leads the nation in smoking among males and is third among both sexes, the state would get less per-person from the proposed settlement than Minnesota, one of four states to settle lawsuits against the tobacco industry during the past year.
"I'll believe it when I see it," Senate President Richard Finan, R-Evendale, said of the proposed deal.
Critics say the proposal abandons key provisions sought by anti-smoking groups, such as tough limits on advertising and marketing of cigarettes to children. They are urging Ohio and other states to scrap the settlement and press forward with separate lawsuits against tobacco companies.
"The industry is vulnerable, especially with a jury in a big state like Ohio," said Richard Daynard, director of the Tobacco Products Liability Project at Northeastern University School of Law in Boston. "I don't see why attorneys general are rushing to sign on to this deal."
Ohio Attorney General Betty Montgomery's office refused to confirm that a deal is in the works. "We're participating in the discussion and hope to have an announcement soon," said Chris Davey, Ms. Montgomery's spokesman.
But Charles "Rocky" Saxbe, a Columbus attorney hired by Ms. Montgomery to handle the state's tobacco lawsuit, said this week he expects the state to receive between $8 billion and $9 billion from the proposed settlement.
Mr. Saxbe said he and other private lawyers working on Ohio's lawsuit are moving ahead as if there won't be a deal. Because Ms. Montgomery didn't join the litigation until after 24 other states had filed suit, a trial isn't scheduled to begin until January 2000 in Franklin County Common Pleas Court.
Representatives from the state chapters of the American Cancer Society, American Heart Association and American Lung Association have called for one-third of any settlement proceeds to be set aside for smoking-prevention programs.
The anti-smoking groups noted that two states that already have settled lawsuits with the tobacco industry - Minnesota and Florida - are spending more than $100 million annually on prevention programs.
"If we don't act now, billions of taxpayer dollars will continue to go up in smoke," the organizations wrote in joint letters to Gov. George Voinovich and his successor, Gov.-elect Bob Taft.
Mr. Taft has vowed to fight any attempt by the federal government to skim off some of the settlement proceeds. He wants most of the money spent to repair Ohio school buildings, which a 1996 federal study determined are the worst in the 50 states.
A portion also should pay for improved Medicaid coverage for uninsured children, said Brett Buerck, Mr. Taft's spokesman.
Jennifer Tisone Price, a lung association lobbyist, said some anti-smoking activists wouldn't oppose spending some of the money on school repairs. She noted that several older school buildings across the state still are heated by coal-fired boilers.
"Replacing those would protect children, so you could look at this as a public health issue," Ms. Price said.
If a settlement is reached between the tobacco companies and 32 states, it would replace a proposed $368 billion national settlement that died in Congress in June.
The deal would retain the authority of local governments to pass their own smoking regulations. Moreover, tobacco companies would still be liable for lawsuits filed by private citizens.
But the deal apparently contains fewer advertising and marketing limits. Cartoons such as Joe Camel and billboards promoting cigarettes would be banned, Ms. Price said, but tobacco companies would still be able to sponsor car racing and other sporting events.
Ohio should hold out for a better deal, Mr. Daynard said.
Minnesota's population is less than half the size of Ohio's, he noted, yet Minnesota got about $1,300 per resident out of its settlement with tobacco companies.
Ohio would get about $800 per resident from the proposed multistate settlement.
"Maybe the attorneys general want to declare victory and move on," Mr. Daynard said. "But that's a high price to pay."
