Lawmakers back limits on tobacco money use

AUGUSTA – Two days after Gov. John Baldacci renewed his call for a constitutional amendment to restrict tobacco-settlement money to health-related programs, lawmakers from both parties led a State House rally to trumpet a similar message.

House Speaker Pat Colwell, D-Gardiner, and Sen. Edward Youngblood, R-Brewer, want an amendment prohibiting the use of any of the tobacco money outside of the Fund for a Healthy Maine, which includes a variety of programs aimed at preventing disease and promoting good health.

Baldacci advanced a similar proposal last year, but it was set aside until this year’s legislative session. On Tuesday, he renewed his call for passage of the amendment, LD 1612, which would need approval of two-thirds legislative majorities and a majority of voters in a state referendum.

The Maine Coalition on Smoking or Health said polling figures show strong support for the proposal.

The coalition said Maine has received about $55 million a year for four years in tobacco settlement money. But nearly $87 million of the total – or nearly 39 percent – has been diverted to nonhealth programs outside the Fund for a Healthy Maine, it says.

The Legislature created the fund in 1999 to receive and disburse Maine’s share of the tobacco money. The state’s annual share is expected to be somewhat smaller during the next two years, but then will rise again.