JACKSON - The next stop in the fight over $20 million in annual payments to an anti-tobacco program may be the Mississippi Supreme Court as the governor's office prepares to appeal a judge's ruling.
On Tuesday, Circuit Judge Jaye Bradley of Jackson County delayed a decision on lawsuits aimed at ending the payments to the Partnership for a Healthy Mississippi, a private, anti-tobacco group founded by former attorney general Mike Moore.
The Partnership will continue to receive the $20 million while the Legislature reviews the program, Bradley said.
Gov. Haley Barbour, state Medicaid officials and the Mississippi Health Care Trust Fund, headed by State Treasurer Tate Reeves, are fighting to stop the Partnership payments.
Attorneys for the governor's office will wait until Bradley's order is signed before filing an appeal, lawyer Paul Hurst said Wednesday.
"In a general sense, we'll be appealing the court's refusal to consider the issue we brought before her. It's difficult to say what the exact legal grounds will be," Hurst said.
A Jackson County judge in 2000 signed the order diverting the $20 million to the Partnership.
Barbour, citing a 2003 legislative watchdog group's report, said the decision of appropriating state money should fall to the Legislature, not the courts. The Joint Legislative Committee on Performance Evaluation and Expenditure Review said courts don't have the authority to order how public money is spent.
Based on that argument, Barbour has no basis for an appeal, Moore said Wednesday.
"It sounds a little silly to me. The governor's legal objection is that the Partnership was created by court order and not the Legislature," Moore said. "Now, the attorney general has asked for the Legislature to review the Partnership and either recreate it or create something different. The governor is objecting to it."
Moore said the pending appeal supports his theory that Barbour's actions are rooted in politics.
Barbour spokesman Pete Smith said the intent of the state's lawsuit against the tobacco industry in the 1990s was to offset state costs of treating illnesses caused by smoking.
"This, from the beginning, has been about the law and the constitution," Smith said.
Attorney General Jim Hood told Bradley a recently appointed legislative committee is charged with determining the viability of the Partnership program. Hood applauded Bradley's decision.
"The court saved the state thousands of dollars in legal fees that the governor was expending allegedly on behalf of the of the Legislature," Hood said in a statement.
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