VICKSBURG - Maine, Delaware and Mississippi have something in common. Can't imagine what it is?
Try this: The three states are alone in funding youth anti-tobacco efforts at or above amounts suggested by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Yep. When it comes to discouraging people from starting to smoke or encouraging them to stop, this state pours on the dollars.
Impressive?
Yes.
Illegal?
Haley Barbour thinks so and, strictly speaking, he's absolutely right.
The situation is unique in state history.
Mississippi, under former Attorney General Mike Moore, was first among an eventual 40 states and assorted territories to sue major tobacco companies to recoup taxpayer money that had been spent to treat people with tobacco-related illnesses.
Mississippi, in 1997, was also first to settle its lawsuit out of court - agreeing to accept as its damages at least $3 billion over 25 years through a formula based, in part, on tobacco sales.
A side provision of the settlement attracted little attention at the time, but has drawn much since. Moore insisted in the court order settling the case that $20 million be sliced from each year's checks to fund something called the Partnership for a Healthy Mississippi, and it's the Partnership that has been making inroads against smoking.
The rest of the money, arriving at a rate averaging about $200 million a year every year since 1998, was solemnly ordered by the Legislature into a new bank account called the Mississippi Health Care Trust Fund.
The trust, legislators vowed, would be considered sacred cash, with only the interest used each year to enhance health-care services for the poor.
Well, as everyone knows, the sacredness thing wore off in about five minutes. Every year except the first two years, the fund has been raided and/or the tobacco checks have been spent before they arrived. (The "trust" should have about $1.6 billion by now, but has about $300 million. This year's and next year's checks have already been spent, too.)
But the Partnership money, remember, has come off the top. It has been under the control of a hand-picked citizen board - and nobody disputes that has been spent effectively.
Indeed, Partnership figures show that while 23 percent of public middle school students were taking up the habit in 1999, that figure had dropped to 11 percent by 2003; and that while 33 percent of public high school students were "testing" cigarettes in 1999, that number had been cut to 23 percent four years later. In-school programs plus ad campaigns and other methods are making the point that smoking isn't cool.
The experience of other states is relevant. Without Partnership-type diversions, most, according to the national Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, have blown their allocations. This year alone, tobacco companies will make $7.5 billion in settlement payments to all 50 states, Washington, D.C., and five territories - and the bulk of the cash will go to everything from highway programs to public pension funds with very little left for the express purposes tobacco companies agreed to make the payments in the first place.
Now, the legal picture. As he has said since he was a candidate, Governor Barbour does not believe the Mississippi Constitution allows money lawfully belonging to the people of Mississippi to be diverted to the Partnership. Barbour and a Legislative PEER Committee report agree that whether good works are being done or not, the Legislature is charged with receiving and allocating all state funds, period.
Last month, Jackson County Chancellor Jaye Bradley, who'd been asked to review the legality of the original order, took a pass. Instead, she invited the Legislature to look at the situation.
The problem for Barbour there is that Partnership leaders have been wise enough to pepper distribution of each year's $20 million in strategic ways to court favor with plenty of lawmakers.
Another wrinkle that should be mentioned is that the Partnership isn't just spending money as originally directed but has branched out into more general youth health matters, including funds for providing nurses for several school districts.
How this whole affray will end is anyone's guess. On one hand the constitution is pretty clear. On the other, the Partnership is doing commendable work - making the state look good, too.
We don't get to be at the top of many favorable rankings. And it certainly doesn't speak well of the Mississippi Legislature that one where we're a national leader - youth smoking cessation - is one where lawmakers were intentionally left without a voice.
