Wednesday, February 16, 2000
Schools get large part of tobacco settlement
BY SPENCER HUNT
Enquirer Columbus Bureau
COLUMBUS — Money from Ohio's $10.1 billion tobacco settlement would pay for as much as $4.5 billion in school construction projects through 2025 under a plan the General Assembly is expected to pass today.
The school construction proposal was the most significant change in a compromise spending bill that passed a joint House-Senate committee Tuesday evening. The panel's 5-1 vote ends a monthslong deadlock between Republican lawmakers in the House and the Senate over the best way to spend the money.
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COMMITTEE PLAN
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Members of a joint Ohio House and Senate committee approved a spending plan for the state's $10.1 billion share of the national tobacco settlement Tuesday. The plan:
• Creates seven trust funds for spending the state's money, one for repairing primary and secondary schools, the remaining six for a variety of health and research programs.
• Sets aside annual payments for the schools' trust fund by dollar amount through fiscal year 2012, then switches to percentage amounts through fiscal year 2025.
• Sets aside percentage amounts for the remaining six trust funds through fiscal year 2012. The funds: Tobacco Use Prevention and Cessation, Public Health Priorities, Biomedical Research and Technology Transfer, Education Technology, Law Enforcement Improvements, and Southern Ohio Agricultural and Community Development.
• Asks future legislatures to consider following proposals in the governor's Tobacco Task Force Report through fiscal year 2025 because money in Ohio must be appropriated every two years by law.
• Creates a program, for emergency assistance only, that would subsidize prescription drugs and oxygen for senior citizens at or below 100 percent of the federal poverty level.
• Creates a six-member panel that would work until Dec. 31, 2000, to create achievement goals for the trust funds.
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Ohio is projected to get up to $10.1 billion from tobacco companies, the state's share of a historic national lawsuit settlement. Tobacco companies will provide the money in installment payments over the next 25 years.
School construction is guaranteed to receive $2.5 billion through 2012 and up to $2 billion more from 2013 through 2025.
Although school construction would receive funding over the life of the settlement payments, anti-smoking, public health and biomedical research programs did not fare as well. Those initiatives are guaranteed a percentage of tobacco funds for only the next 12 years. After 2013, the plan simply encourages future legislatures to continue the funding.
That spurred some objections from Democratic lawmakers on the committee.
“You have a priority to make a 26-year commitment to schools, but you don't have a priority to make a 26-year commitment to biomedical research, and you don't have a priority to make a 26-year commitment to public health,” said Sen. Eric D. Fingerhut, D-Cleveland.
Mr. Fingerhut's comments and no vote sent a signal Senate Democrats will likewise vote against the plan today. But the House Democrats' committee member, Rep. Peter Lawson Jones, D-Cleveland, had a different message.
“Clearly the bill could be improved in several significant respects,” Mr. Jones said. “Given the current climate in the General Assembly, this is probably the best possible measure that could leave this body and become law.”
Compromise plan
Rep. J. Donald Mottley, R-West Carrollton, said the plan is the only compromise that could be reached between House and Senate Republicans. Until Tuesday night, Senate Republicans favored a 12-year plan, while the House GOP pushed for 26 years.
Senate Republicans also agreed to provide a limited amount of funding, perhaps as much as $500,000 a year, to help needy senior citizens pay for prescription medicines. But they included new restrictions intended to insure the money would be spent only on seniors living at or below poverty conditions.
The plan is expected to pass both the House and Senate on separate votes this morning.
Gov. Bob Taft, who lobbied lawmakers through the day Tuesday, was pleased with the result, spokesman Scott Milburn said Tuesday night.
“We've got a 26-year dedicated funding stream for education, which has always been the governor's first priority, and a strong funding commitment for the other trust funds,” Mr. Milburn said.
Time to plan
House Speaker Jo Ann Davidson, R-Reynoldsburg, appeared confident the plan would pass her chamber with bipartisan support. “I think (Mr. Jones') comments are a good indication of what might happen,” she said.
The commitment to school construction is good news for school districts, said Ohio Department of Education spokeswoman Patti Grey.
“We supported the 25-year plan right from the beginning because it gives us a longer time period to plan,” Ms. Grey said. “In construction, you typically need longer times to plan.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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