A Jackson County Chancery Court ruled Friday that Gov. Haley Barbour can challenge a 5-year-old court order sending $20 million a year into anti-tobacco programs.
Chancery Judge Jaye Bradley’s ruling allows the governor’s lawsuit to halt payments to the Partnership for a Healthy Mississippi to move forward. She instructed attorneys to schedule a hearing.
Bradley also stopped the Partnership from spending its 2005 allotment of the state’s $120 million annual payment from a 1997 tobacco settlement. The decision allows the Partnership to intervene in the court order, as well.
“Even though everybody knows this issue will ultimately be decided by the state Supreme Court, the judge’s decision at this preliminary stage is clearly a victory for the taxpayers,” Barbour said in a statement.
Under a 2000 Jackson County Chancery Court order, the group’s payment supports youth and adult tobacco cessation programs.
Barbour contends it is unconstitutional for a private organization to receive a portion of the state settlement. He wants the money channeled to the Mississippi Health Care Trust Fund with the rest of the settlement.
Former Attorney General Mike Moore, who founded the Partnership and serves as its chairman, said he was not surprised by the court’s decision.
“We expected that the court’s going to have the governor in to have his say,” Moore said. “I’m just surprised that the governor continues this fight.”
Moore filed the first state lawsuit against the tobacco industry to recoup health-related expenses caused by cigarette smoking. Mississippi was the first to reach a settlement with cigarette makers.
The Partnership’s next payment arrives in late December but is not budgeted until June 2006, he said.
Bradley’s restriction on spending the funds should not hamper the group’s efforts, Moore said. The Partnership has an annual $21 million budget.
Bradley’s order comes two weeks after a hearing to decide whether the governor could challenge the Partnership’s payments.
“The governor has an interest in seeing that funds awarded to the state are expended in accordance with legislative statutes,” Bradley wrote in her decision.
State Treasurer Tate Reeves joined Barbour in opposing the Partnership payment.
“I believe it is unconstitutional for $20 million that rightfully belongs to the people of Mississippi to be diverted to a private organization with no public accountability on the expenditure of those funds,” Reeves said in a statement.
Barbour Wins Anti-Tobacco Funds Ruling
