How Should State Spend Its Share Of Tobacco Money?
Just about everyone seems to have an opinion about how to spend the $368 billion that tobacco companies hope will buy them immunity from most future lawsuits over the damage their product does.
Why not Bagpipes readers, too?
Congress has to ratify the settlement before any of the money can be spent, but the cigarette manufacturers have agreed to pay the money out over the next 25 years in a deal to settle lawsuits filed by 40 states.
Some of the money would go to cover medical expenses caused by smoking. Nationally, President Clinton has outlined a number of initiatives he’d like to spend some of the federal government’s portion on.
Washington state’s share could be as much as $3.5 billion, Attorney General Christine Gregoire estimates, and some lawmakers have talked about spending it on education and health care for the needy. On Friday, a group of teens appeared in Olympia to say it should finance anti-smoking campaigns.
So, what’s your plan for spending proceeds from the settlement? Keep in mind that once the settlement runs out, any programs launched now would have to end or obtain other financing.
Take your best shot
If a disease were claiming as many lives as gunfire is, some of the country’s doctors are saying, it would be declared an epidemic and health care resources would be mobilized to combat it.
One Pennsylvania physician likens the growing firearm violence in American communities to a Third World war.
Proposals to ban or sharply control private ownership of firearms, especially handguns, have run into political obstacles. What other public response might be more successful?
The phone force to the rescue
Carol Conzelman of Spokane said she agrees with the reader who said in last Thursday’s Bagpipes that people should be able to phone in license plates to the police when they see unauthorized motorists parking in places reserved for the handicapped.
“This works when you see cars going around school buses or through school crosswalks,” said Conzelman.
“I know lots of people - I’ve done it myself - who call in license numbers all the time so people won’t speed and endanger our kids,” she said.
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