News: MS Gov. goes after Antis Page 2

State wants anti-smoking group to repay $7.7 million
•? But Partnership officials say it is entitled to keep pilot-program funds
September 8, 2007
By Natalie Chandler
natalie.chandler@clarionledger.com
A dispute over millions of dollars held by a nonprofit, anti-smoking group has intensified three months after the Mississippi Supreme Court ruled that diverting tobacco money to the group was wrong.
Attorneys for the state’s Health Care Trust Fund want The Partnership for a Healthy Mississippi to repay $7.7 million more than it already has and turn over all financial records, according to documents obtained Friday by The Clarion Ledger.
But Partnership officials noted a lower court’s decision allows them to keep the money derived from its pilot program, and the Supreme Court chose not to address that issue in its June ruling.
Former state Attorney General Mike Moore, who helped create the Partnership, recently turned over $1.1 million to the state. The money was left from an account that was once funded by tobacco companies’ annual payments to Mississippi. The Supreme Court ordered the repayment of that money.
But in an Aug. 20 letter, an attorney for the Health Care Trust Fund demanded $7.7 million remaining from another account. It came from the Partnership’s two-year pilot program.
In addition, attorney Bradley Clanton requested “copies of all bank statements, records of deposits, copies of checks written on Partnership accounts and the complete minutes of this nonprofit corporation since the date of its incorporation in order that a proper examination of the expenditure of state funds may be conducted.”
Moore would not say how much is left in the account that funded the Partnership’s pilot program. But he noted that in January, a Jackson County chancery judge approved the Partnership’s budget for this year, and Partnership attorneys specified the $7 million came from the pilot program. The judge’s order said the funds resulted from interest accrued, principal paid and private donations.
Representatives attending that hearing on behalf of Gov. Haley Barbour and State Treasurer Tate Reeves, both of whom oppose the Partnership, did not object, Moore said.
“The time for an appeal of that order is long since passed,” Moore said. “It’s 30 days to appeal the order.”
The Supreme Court did not address the issue because attorneys who lead the Health Care Trust Fund for Barbour and Reeves did not raise it, he said.
In a telephone interview, Clanton acknowledged the judge’s action but said, “She didn’t apply accounting principles and said the books are right.”
A spokeswoman for Reeves did not return a phone call seeking comment. But in a recent interview, he said, “Taxpayers deserve an accounting of where every dollar of taxpayer money is spent over the last seven years, and as of yet, we haven’t received that.”
Moore helped begin the Partnership after he sued tobacco companies on behalf of the state to recover the public’s cost for treating sick smokers. It began with a two-year pilot program funded by $61.8 million.
When the program ended, Moore said he asked legislative leaders whether to continue the Partnership through a court order or through the government. He said they directed him to the courts. A judge then granted his request to divert the companies’ $20 million annual payments to the Partnership.
Barbour protested that lawmakers should control the money. Moore and Partnership officials supported a bill that would have provided legislative oversight, but Barbour vetoed it in the 2006 session.
Lawmakers this year approved funding for anti-smoking programs and school nurses, and with Barbour’s support, they created a tobacco control board. Money from the state’s $4 billion tobacco settlement will continue to be sent to the Health Care Trust Fund.
But Sen. Hillman Frazier, a member of the Health and Human Services committee, said, “It’s hard to improve on what (the Partnership) did. Normally the private sector performs better than government when it comes to setting up such programs.”
From 1999-2004, the Partnership helped cut adult smoking by 20 percent, high school smoking by 32 percent and middle school smoking by 48 percent, a spokeswoman said.
Since losing funding, programs for law enforcement, counter-marketing and cessation have ended, and six employees remain.

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Anti-smoking group loses fight, funding as court sides with governor

June 15, 2007
By Natalie Chandler, Clarion-Ledger

A Mississippi Supreme Court ruling handed down Thursday against The Partnership for a Healthy Mississippi means the program designed to prevent tobacco use probably will dissolve by the end of the year unless more funding sources are found, program founder and former state Attorney General Mike Moore said.

“It’s a pretty sad day for Mississippi and the children of Mississippi,” Moore said. “I didn’t have real high hopes of the court doing anything on this, with the governor leading the challenge against it. It’s just so unfortunate that the state that led the fight against tobacco so successfully, and then led the nation in the most effective program, will now basically be last.”

The court’s 6-1 opinion upheld a lower court’s ruling that sending $20 million every year to the Partnership was wrong. The private nonprofit group received the payments as part of the state’s tobacco settlement. Moore helped create the program after he successfully sued the companies on behalf of the state to recover the public’s cost for treating sick smokers.

When the pilot phase of the program ended, Moore obtained a December 2000 court order that directed part of annual settlement payments to the Partnership.

But the Supreme Court wrote the chancery judge who granted the order did not have the authority to bypass the Legislature.

“The tobacco installment payments are monies that unquestionably belong to the state of Mississippi, and all of these payments, including the annual payments which were diverted to the Partnership, should have been placed in the Health Care Trust Fund until properly appropriated by the Legislature,” Justice George Carlson Jr. wrote.

While Moore has maintained that the Partnership would be more aggressive in preventing smoking, Gov. Haley Barbour has argued that legislators should control the money. Moore and Partnership officials supported a bill that would have provided legislative oversight, but Barbour vetoed it in the 2006 session.

Barbour, the Medicaid program and the Health Care Trust Fund challenged the payments, and the same chancery judge ordered them ended. In October 2006, the Supreme Court ordered the Partnership not to spend money from the annual payments.

Barbour would not agree to be interviewed for this article. In a statement, he said the ruling “emphatically confirms what has always been obvious – only the Mississippi Legislature can appropriate the state’s money. A local judge and the attorney general have no power to give taxpayer money to a private charity. It’s a shame it took a long, drawn-out lawsuit to stop this illegal and unconstitutional diversion of taxpayer money.”

Moore blamed Barbour’s objections on “his roots lobbying for tobacco companies and political (reasons.) The bottom line is, people will die who would not have died.”

In a news release he issued later, Moore noted that Barbour and the Legislature have created a new tobacco control board.

From 1999-2004, the Partnership helped cut adult smoking by 20 percent, high school smoking by 32 percent and middle school smoking by 48 percent, a spokeswoman said.

Since losing funding, programs for law enforcement, counter-marketing and cessation have ended. The 33 community partnerships formed around the state also have been called off. The agency will continue to work on making cities and counties smoke-free, but there is no money for prevention programs, Moore said.

The Supreme Court also ordered the Partnership to pay back money received as a result of the 2000 court order. The program had reimbursed the money. Moore estimated the program now has less than a few million dollars left that was received before the court order. The money came from interest accrued off the original grant.

Money from the state’s $4 billion tobacco settlement will continue to be sent to the Health Care Trust Fund established by the Legislature. At the request of Barbour, lawmakers earlier this year approved funding that will be used for school nurses, tobacco prevention programs and anti-tobacco ads.

“I look forward to seeing what they actually do,” Moore said, adding that he may seek private donations or state money for the Partnership.
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Lawyers argue over funds for anti-tobacco group
?
March 27, 2007
Natalie Chandler

Former attorney general says organization will fizzle if state high court rules against it

Mississippi Supreme Court Justices Jess Dickinson (left) and Michael Randolph listen to arguments before the court Monday in Jackson over whether the Legislature can appropriate tobacco settlement money previously assigned by a court to a private, nonprofit organization.

AT STAKE

Partnership for a Healthy Mississippi

$20 million in annual payments for tobacco prevention programs

33 community partnerships around the state

Former state Attorney General Mike Moore says the organization he helped form with money from the landmark tobacco settlement will dissolve by the end of the year if the state Supreme Court rules against it.

“We’re down to a couple million dollars left,” Moore said after attorneys argued the case Monday. “The most successful program in America will be out of business unless we get the funding.”

A Partnership spokeswoman said the 33 community partnership groups around the state are expected to end Friday.

Attorneys for the Partnership for a Healthy Mississippi are appealing a May 2006 order from a Jackson County chancery judge that ended annual payments for tobacco prevention programs. In October 2006, the Supreme Court ordered the Partnership to stop spending money until the court decided the legality of $20 million in annual payments to the private, nonprofit anti-tobacco group.

Gov. Haley Barbour wants legislators, not the courts, to decide how the money is spent. Partnership officials agreed last session and asked legislators to provide more oversight. But Barbour, a former tobacco lobbyist, vetoed the legislation.

Mississippi in 1997 settled its lawsuit against the tobacco industry, which was filed to recover public costs of treating sick smokers. The Partnership was created later as a pilot program using separate payments from cigarette makers. When the money for the pilot program ran out, Moore – who filed the tobacco lawsuit – obtained a December 2000 court order that directed part of Mississippi’s annual settlement payments to the Partnership.

Former state Attorney General Mike Moore listens Monday in Jackson to arguments before the Mississippi Supreme Court over the continued state funding of a smoking-cessation program directed by a private, nonprofit agency.

John Corlew, an attorney for Barbour, told justices the action was “the most blatant diversion of public funds to a private corporation in the history of the state.”

An opinion on the case is expected to be issued by September. “We’re confident a local judge is not allowed to appropriate money to a private charity,” Barbour spokesman Pete Smith said.

Moore said Barbour’s stance on the issue is “hypocrisy,” noting his rejection of legislative attempts last session to account for $5 billion worth of federal relief for Hurricane Katrina recovery. “He doesn’t want any accountability over that $5 billion, but he wants everything over the $20 million,” Moore said.

Said Smith: “The governor has said we expect (the relief money) to be investigated by federal agencies as well as state agencies. It doesn’t appear there’s a lack of oversight.”

Despite limited funds, the Partnership is open. From 1999-2004, it helped cut adult smoking by 20 percent, high school smoking by 32 percent and middle school smoking by 48 percent, spokeswoman Sharon Garrison said.

But since losing funding, programs for law enforcement, counter-marketing and cessation have ended. The 33 community partnerships formed around the state will end Friday, she said. “It will mean that an entire generation of children will have no protection from the marketing tactics of the tobacco industry,” Garrison said. “The companies have more than doubled what they’re spending to reach kids.”