Wednesday, September 08, 1999
Tobacco windfall spending proposed
Ohio schools would garner largest share
BY MICHAEL HAWTHORNE
Enquirer Columbus Bureau
COLUMBUS — Public schools might get more than half of the state's $10.1 billion settlement from tobacco companies Ohio sued to recover the costs of treating smoking-related illnesses.
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SHARING THE MONEY
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Top aides to Gov. Bob Taft recommended Tuesday how Ohio should spend its $10.1 billion share of the legal settlement with tobacco companies during the next quarter century.
• School construction - $4.5 billion
• Biomedical research - $1.8 billion
• Anti-smoking efforts - $1.5 billion
• School technology - $1.2 billion
• Public health programs - $809 million
• Tobacco farmers - $229 million
• Ohio Attorney General - $25 million
Source: Ohio Office of Budget and Management
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Under a proposal outlined Tuesday by one of Gov. Bob Taft's top aides, $4.5 billion in tobacco payments would be set aside during the next quarter century to build and repair public schools. Another $1.2 billion would pay for classroom computers and other technology.
Anti-smoking groups and medical schools would get about 40 percent of the windfall, with $1.8 billion earmarked for cancer research, $1.5 billion to help prevent and stop smoking and $809 million for other health programs.
Health groups say spending the money on anti-smoking programs is especially important in Ohio, which leads in smoking among males and is third among both genders. Nearly 20,000 people die in Ohio each year from smoking-related illnesses.
Tom Johnson, chairman of a bipartisan task force Mr. Taft set up to recommend uses for the unprecedented deluge of cash, said the panel tried to balance health needs with more pragmatic considerations. The state is under an Ohio Supreme Court
order to revamp the way public schools are built and funded.
“Our first priority was health,” said Mr. Johnson, who also is Mr. Taft's budget director. “But funding for school facilities remains a great priority for the state.”
Other beneficiaries would include Ohio's tobacco farmers, most of whom are concentrated in Adams and Brown counties. They would get $229 million to help develop new crops.
Attorney General Betty Montgomery, meanwhile, would get $25 million for crime-fighting laboratories.
The governor's tobacco task force is scheduled to meet todayto discuss the proposal. State lawmakers ultimately will decide how annual payments ranging from $349 million to $403 million will be spent.
Ohio's first two payments, totaling $445 million, are expected next summer.
Even though Ohio joined other states that sued tobacco companies to recover money taxpayers spent to treat smoking-related illnesses, Mr. Taft and legislative leaders have made it clear they wanted to spend much of the settlement on school construction.
When the Ohio Supreme Court struck down the way the state finances public schools in 1997, the landmark decision condemned officials for allowing some children to attend schools where water drips from the ceiling, paint peels from the walls and coal dust clogs computer keyboards.
Lawmakers have set aside about $2 billion for school con struction and repairs since most of the state's 611 school districts sued for changes eight years ago. But the need is estimated to be much greater — between $10 billion and $16 billion, according to the nonpartisan Legislative Budget Office.
“We need to show the court we're doing all we can in this area,” said Senate President Richard Finan, R-Evendale.
There has been no shortage of other ideas about how the money should be used since Ohio and 45 other states agreed to a settlement with tobacco companies last fall. (Florida, Minnesota, Texas and Mississippi settled separate lawsuits.) More than 60 witnesses testified before the state's task force, yet simple math suggested most of the groups wouldn't get anything close to what they wanted.
A coalition including the American Cancer Society, American Lung Association and American Heart Association sought a third of the settlement for an anti-smoking foundation. The group ended up getting about 15 percent of it.
“We will be able to make this work,” said Jennifer Price, spokeswoman for the Coalition for a Healthier Ohio. “If we start working on this now, we could save an entire generation of Ohioans.”
Among other things, the group wants to conduct anti-smoking media campaigns, promote community programs targeted at youths and support stronger enforcement of laws banning the sale of tobacco products to minors.
Universities lobbied hard for a cut of the windfall to support research and technology, noting that Michigan recently decided to earmark $1 billion in tobacco payments for similar purposes.
If lawmakers accept Mr. Johnson's proposal, Ohio universities would get almost double that amount. Researchers said the money would help them build laboratories, recruit top experts and attract more federal grants.
“I see this as seed money to push us into the future,” said Donald C. Harrison, senior vice president and provost for health affairs at the University of Cincinnati.
UC is expected to compete for money from the tobacco settlement with Ohio State University, Case Western Reserve University and the Cleveland Clinic.
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