[1/16/03]Sen. Mike Chaney said Wednesday that Attorney General Mike Moore’s stop-smoking programs have cost the state $240 million in revenue.

His reference was to the portion of annual tobacco settlement payments diverted to immediate spending.

“Attorney General Mike Moore gets $20 million of the tobacco trust off the top of the tobacco money before it ever goes to the state treasury,” Chaney, a Vicksburg Republican, said to the Vicksburg Lions Club Wednesday.

If three years’ payments were parlayed into 3-to-1 federal matching dollars for Medicaid, Chaney said, the resulting $240 million would have been available to avert the shortfall in health-care dollars in recent years which, in turn, have precipitated wider budget problems.

Moore pioneered state suits against cigarette companies to recover cash taxpayers had paid to treat people with tobacco-related illnesses. Settled out of court, the initial deal was tied to tobacco sales and was projected to generate billions for the state over 20 years.

He responded to Chaney’s statement today, saying that as of Dec. 31, the state had received $1,051,671,145.76 from tobacco payments.

“Over $306 million has been expended on public health in Mississippi, the partnership’s $20 million is a drop in the bucket,” he said.

Chaney indicated the portion designated for immediate use on enforcement of tobacco control laws, smoking prevention programs and stop-smoking campaigns, may be being misspent.

“That would be 60 million new dollars we would get each year,” he said. “This is the fourth time Attorney General Moore has gotten $20 million, he has cost the state of Mississippi $240 million in lost revenue.”

Chaney said Moore has called him public enemy No. 1 for the Partnership for a Healthy Mississippi, the entity which receives the money, and Chaney said Moore was public enemy No. 1 for some of Mississippi’s budget problems.

Some states, including Tennessee, have completely spent their tobacco trusts due to budget pressures. To forestall cutbacks in 2002, Mississippi lawmakers also tapped the trust fund.

“This year Rep. Bobby Moody is trying to raid tobacco trust fund for Medicaid,” Chaney said. “It doesn’t make sense to take $80 million out of the tobacco trust fund and put into Medicaid when you could take Moore’s $20 million and put it into the general fund and get a 3-to-1 match.”

Moore said Mississippi started a pilot program to reduce teen smoking for an initial length of two years. He said the program was working, and the court gave them an additional year on the program, then added the program to the original settlement.

“We reported to the court and showed teen smoking was down by 20 percent and the court ordered the original settlement to include $20 million be taken from the tobacco companies and given to the Partnership for a Healthy Mississippi. The appeal time is over.”

Other uses of the tobacco money have included grant programs. Vicksburg police, for example, received money to place Internet-connected laptop computers in patrol cars on the theory that they could create a database of stores known to sell tobacco to minors. The cost was $17,000 per vehicle.

Overall, Chaney said Mississippi is about $640 million short of trying to budget for the 12-month period starting in July.

“In the 11 years I have been in the Legislature and the time I have tracked legislation for 30 years, we are probably in the worst financial dithers we have been in,” he said.

Moore said the state would ultimately save money by reducing the number of people killed by Mississippi’s No. 1 cause of death.

“If we can reduce teen smoking by half we will save Mississippi money on health problems,” he said. “Why would anyone want to stop a program that saves lives?”

Chaney also said he has a 70-page investigative report into Moore’s activities with the tobacco money prepared by legislative staff, but not released in its entirety. “It’s very critical of what General Moore is doing,” Chaney said.

Moore responded that everything he has done has been done with the consent of legislative leadership.