Ohio expects to get $18 billion from the nationwide tobacco settlement over the next 40 years, but Gov. Ted Strickland is proposing to sell off the future payments for a $5-billion lump sum now, the Associated Press reported March 19.

Strickland said the money could be used to build new schools, but "securitizing" the future payments would likely spell the eventual end of the Ohio Tobacco Prevention Foundation, which is funded by the settlement. "I think securitization of tobacco funds makes sense," Strickland said. "I think what we're going to do with those resources is very defensible, and I think this is going to be an easy sell."

Eighteen other states have already securitized their shares of the 1998 settlement with the nation's tobacco companies. But in Wisconsin, Gov. Jim Doyle said he wants to revisit his state's securitization deal in hopes of recovering money to be used for public-health and stop-smoking projects -- the original intent of the settlement.

"The governor's proposal breaks the promise Ohio leaders made at the time of the 1998 state tobacco settlement to invest a significant portion of the state's settlement money in programs to reduce tobacco use, especially among kids," said Jan Friedman, spokesman for the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, the Toledo Blade reported March 17.