The $20 million a year that goes to the Partnership For a Healthy Mississippi is now in the hands of the state legislature. A Gulf Coast judge overturned a ruling that sent a portion of the 1997 tobacco settlement money directly to the non-profit each year.
Former Attorney General Mike Moore says the ruling just doesn’t make sense, putting a thousand jobs and the most successful anti-tobacco program in the country in jeopardy. “What the governor has successfully done, maybe, has stopped funds and killed those programs. I’m not too sure I’d be too proud of that,” Moore says.
Governor Haley Barbour filed the lawsuit last year, arguing all of the annual money from Mike Moore’s multi-billion dollar tobacco settlement had to constitutionally be appropriated by the legislature. “We’ll now come back and see how to use those funds in the future, but until then they’ll stay in the healthcare trust fund,” Barbour says.
The legislature already tried to appropriate the money this past legislative session. Both chambers agreed to continue sending the money to the Partnership. “They passed bills to continue this very important program. It’s only the governor who objects to this,” Moore says.
The governor vetoed the bill, criticizing the Partnership for misusing the $100 million it’s received over the last five years. He says the money could be better spent and used for more than just tackling tobacco use. “…The use of drugs, provide healthcare, nursing care. I’m certain the legislature and the executive branch will work together to make sure that is in fact how this money is spent,” says Barbour.
Moore, who serves as board chairman of the Partnership, says he’ll appeal the ruling to the state supreme Court. “I’m going to fight until the last hoorah -so to speak- to protect kids in this state. This is a program worth fighting for.”
The “Judge Kicks Fate of Anti-Tobacco Funding to Legislature”
Originally written By: Wendy Suares
Originally written By: Wendy Suares
