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DrugScreening.org


 
Ohio Shuts Down Smoking Prevention Foundation
May 9, 2008

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News Summary

The Ohio Tobacco Prevention Foundation was shut down this week when Gov. Ted Strickland signed a bill that seizes the organization's assets and transfers its responsibilities to the state Department of Health, the Dayton Daily News reported May 7.

The bill was approved 29-3 in the Senate and signed quickly by Strickland; the state and the foundation -- formed with money from Ohio's share of the 1998 nationwide tobacco settlement -- have been locked in a legal battle over who controls the foundation's $230 million in assets and how the money should be spent.

After Strickland signed the bill into law, lawyers for the state asked the courts to dismiss the foundation's lawsuit to prevent the liquidation of its assets.

If the law is upheld by the courts, $230 million of the foundation's money would go to a state jobs fund, while $40 million would be transferred to the Health Department. Sixteen of the foundation's 17 employees also would be moved to the health agency.

COMMENTS ON THIS ARTICLE:

Posted by Grey Market on 13 May 08 05:24 AM EDT
Gov. Strickland is a hero! He took funding, paid directly by smokers, away from a group of criminals that have been lying to the public for years in order to line their own pockets. More power to him!

Posted by alijane on 12 May 08 09:34 PM EDT
For what it is worth, the MSA Settlement had no strings attached and the states were free to spend it however they wanted to spend it, and spend it they did! The politicans went on a lottery winner like spending spree and like many of those early lottery winners, they are broke or deeply in debt and now use the annual payouts to pay the interst on the debt they secured with the MSA funds. Sorry people,but this is my pet peeve. If every state had invested those payments and only used a portuon of the interest income, no state would have a budget shortfall today. But instead of invest, they spent and spent and spent and have nothing to show for it. My only questions regarding the Ohio issue is why did this agency have so many millions in their bank account>

Posted by alijane on 12 May 08 09:25 PM EDT
The MSA funds were the states funds and that settlement sent all states off on an unpresedented ten year spending spree. Most if not all states has sold their future payouts for pennies on the dollar. The states annual payments are declining each and every year because it is based on pack sales per state. Fewer people smoking or at least buying in their home states. The MSA will be 10 years old in November and the states have blown through the entire $25B in ten short years. Somehow, I thing we the taxpayers will be paying the interest on the bonds the states have sold, perhaps even our great-grand children. Imagine if the states had invested the payments and only used a portion of the investment income to support the needed programs. MSA what a waste!

Posted by b rogers on 12 May 08 07:11 PM EDT
Since Ohio's statewide smoking ban, nearly 5,400 workers in the hospitality industry have lost their jobs. Many people have lost their businesses. Please attempt to look at the bigger picture here. It's not all about you.

Posted by Linda on 12 May 08 06:33 PM EDT
Thank you Governor Strickland. Finish the job and return Ohio back into a free state and give private property business owners back their constitutional rights to their own property. Kick the jackboot thugs out of Ohio and the air will immediately improve

Posted by TS on 12 May 08 09:54 AM EDT
This is an outrage! That money was earned from a TOBACCO SETTLEMENT - what part of that translates into "state jobs fund?" Gov. Strickland needs to learn a little about ethics. And this man is a possible VP candidate? Please.

Posted by Concerned Citizen on 12 May 08 09:01 AM EDT
Not to mention the other 400 people who stand to lose their jobs statewide, the progress that statistics show will be lost in tobacco prevention efforts, and the millions and millions of dollars which this move will cost the state in tobacco-related expenditures. Don't be fooled - the legislature says that this is about the economic stimulus package, but it's really a power play. It's scary that the state government sees nothing unethical about getting itself out of the defendant's seat in a lawsuit by abusing its power to dissolve the plaintiff.

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