Tobacco settlement alert
by January 25, 1999 12:00 am 69 views
Looking for some of that $1.62 billion tobacco settlement money the state has coming for your own pet pork-barrel project? Forget it, buddy, unless you’re planning to do something useful in the world of medicine.
A coalition of Gov. Mike Huckabee, state Attorney General Mark Pryor, House Speaker Bob Johnson and Senate President pro tempore Jay Bradford agreed in principle Jan. 21 that all of state’s money from the tobacco settlement will be used for medical issues, not highways, worker training or any other such stuff.
Rex Nelson, a political adviser to Huckabee, says it’s very likely that a good portion of the money will create smoking cessation programs.
“A certain part of this money would be endowed,” he says, with the return on investment probably being used for anti-smoking education programs.”
None of the numbers have been worked out yet, of course — the bill based on this agreement hasn’t even been filed. And the state probably won’t see a dime of the settlement money for another year, Nelson says.n