- Ohio Panel To Recommend
Settlement Money Funding Priorities
- A panel assembled by Ohio's governor and legislative leaders
begins meeting this week to recommend how Ohio should spend the
$9.8 billion it expects to receive from the multi-state tobacco
settlement. The panel has 60 days to make its recommendations.
The panel is sure to get plenty of recommendations, says Tim
Keen, assistant director of the state Office of Budget and
Management. "Whenever you're talking about big money like
that, folks come out of the woodwork."
Health groups are hoping
state lawmakers will devote the first three settlement checks,
totaling more than $900 million, to a tobacco control
foundation.
The health groups, including the American Cancer Society,
American Lung Association and American Heart Association are
releasing an economic study this week that shows Ohio spends
$600 million a year on Medicaid-financed treatments for
smoking-related illnesses.
"Unless we invest this money wisely
now, even the immense tobacco settlement won't cover those
expenses in the future," says Jennifer Tisone Price, a lobbyist
for the American Lung Association of Ohio.
- Source:
- CINCINNATI ENQUIRER (on-line), (3/22/99) "Fight Over Tobacco Money Begins", Michael Hawthorne
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