Sunday, June 06, 1999
CAPITOL INSIDER
Questioning the motives of a helpful Philip Morris
BY MICHAEL HAWTHORNE
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Representatives of Philip Morris, the tobacco company responsible for the Marlboro Man, showed up last week before a panel studying how to spend Ohio's $10 billion share of the national legal settlement with cigarette makers.
We're ready to help you stop kids from smoking, Derek Crawford, the company's chief Ohio lobbyist, told the panel. Just give us a spot on another board overseeing the state's anti-smoking efforts.
“Philip Morris USA has always recognized that the right to manufacture and market cigarettes to adults also involves the responsibility to help prevent kids from smoking,” Mr. Crawford said.
Anti-smoking activists rolled their eyes. They promptly faxed out a national survey by the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids that showed massive advertising for the company's Marlboro cigarettes has made it the most popular brand among kids.
Tobacco companies could have another motivation. If there is a substantial drop in smoking nationwide, they won't have to pay as much to states that sued to recover the cost of medical care for folks with smoking-related illnesses.
Given all the bickering in Cincinnati, state senators aren't ready to give city council authority to raise the hotel tax and create a new restaurant tax to finance expansion of the Albert B. Sabin Cincinnati Convention Center.
Dennis Wojtanowski, a Columbus lobbyist whose firm is paid $25,000 a month to secure funding for the project, struck out in his attempt to slip the tax language into the state budget proposal pending in the Senate.
“We've got three or four major conflicting capital projects in Cincinnati,” said Senate President Richard Finan, R-Evendale. “I think we need to do the convention center, but they aren't ready.”
Mayor Roxanne Qualls and the rest of council should agree on a way to pay for the project before coming to him for help, Mr. Finan said.
The competition already has started for money from the state's next capital improvements budget. Besides the convention center, area leaders are seeking more money for the Bengals and Reds stadiums, the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center and the Contemporary Arts Center downtown.
For the past 27 years, Senate President Richard Finan has sat down each week to write a column about his exploits in Columbus. But the Evendale Republican announced last week he's shutting his down at the end of the month.
“It always bothers me that the press does a wringing of hands about the lack of interest by the voters in the political system, but at the same time thinks this column is some kind of election ploy,” Mr. Finan wrote.
“However, maybe more important is the fact that I get zero feedback,” he continued. “I tell people my thoughts and how I vote. I don't think anybody cares.”
Hey, senator, we've only been on your mailing list for a month. When you think of us, remember the fractured syntax of former President George Bush: “Message: We care.”
Richard Nixon must be rolling over in his grave. The name of Gov. Bob Taft's 0-5 softball team, the Governor's Iguanas, is a tongue-in-cheek reference to the Iguana Project, a plan by gonzo journalist and Nixon antagonist Hunter S. Thompson to revive the Democratic Party after Mr. Nixon trounced George McGovern in the 1972 election.
Michael Hawthorne covers state government for The Enquirer. He can be reached at (614) 224-4640.
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