Forty-six states and the tobacco industry agreed four years ago to a settlement to protect cigarette companies from “the further expense, delay, inconvenience, burden and uncertainty of continued litigation,” according to the agreement. In return, the states got $206 billion to support “policies designed to reduce youth smoking, to promote public health and to secure monetary payments to the settling states.”

Tobacco got its protection guarantee; the advocates for public health wonder what sort of guarantees they got, and who will remember the purpose of the settlement as time passes. While Maine is better than almost all states at remaining true to the intent of the agreement – in its case, keeping the dollars going toward the eight Fund for a Healthy Maine programs originally designated – millions of dollars from the settlement have gone elsewhere. Often the money has gone to other worthy programs, but when it has, it no longer supports the long-term challenges in health care for which it was supposed to be set aside. Even when it is redirected temporarily, the people and organizations that provide these valuable services cannot operate and they disappear.

It is crucial that these organizations not only continue but also receive all of the resources they are supposed to get. Maine has had among the highest teen smoking rates nationally, and short-term financial concerns should not take precedence over the long-term health hazards from smoking. According to the Centers for Disease Control, 430,000 Americans die from tobacco-related causes each year; 90 percent of those smokers began before they were 18 years old. Maine’s programs to help smokers quit and keep children from starting is essential to the state’s goal of improving health.

LD 1612, part of Gov. Baldacci’s bold health-care package, would constitutionally protect the tobacco funding from being diverted. This sounds like a drastic step and at the federal level it would be; but the Maine constitution is regularly amended to by voters – last year, Mainers altered it to allow for short-term debt for highway and bridge funding; it has been amended nearly two dozen times in the last 20 years, including to protect funding sources.

The amendment, if approved by two-thirds of legislators, would be presented to voters in November. The question would ask whether the settlement money should be used only for health and child-related purposes, including preventative medicine. Maine spends about $5 billion annually on health care; the $50 million or so from the settlement is a tiny percentage of that and ought to find its way to programs that will reduce the need for spending elsewhere.

Legislators are expected to consider LD 1612 this week. When they do, they should send the question to voters, who, according to polls, already see the value in using this source of money specifically for the purpose stated. Constitutional protection will ensure that Maine always spends at least a small portion of its health care bill on prevention.