State Rep. Jay Hottinger (R) of Newark

Hottinger On Tobacco Foundation

Governor Ted Strickland has signed a bill to strip the state’s tobacco prevention foundation of it’s funds

The bill was a response to a lawsuit by the foundation to stop the state from using the majority of its funds as part of an economic package to create jobs.

“They filed a lawsuit. They tried to transfer that money out of state to some organizations out of state and one them was in Washington D.C. We introduced bill that eliminated that foundation.”

Bill sponsor State Representative Jay Hottinger of Newark says there are a lot of misconceptions on how states were supposed to use their share of a 1998 settlement with tobacco companies.

“A number of states when they received their money they put it into their general revenue fund. Their argument was that tobacco and tobacco illnesses cause a drain on the general revenue budget because of medicaid expenses. So instead of creating these foundations they put their money into a general revenue fund where it could be spent anywhere. There we no stipulations on how this money could be spent.”

Hottinger says a majority of the settlement money has been used for school construction.

“The legislature eight years ago decided some of the money should be set aside. Most of the money goes to school construction. We’re building schools and repairing schools at a rapid pace. We’re number 1 in the nation and most of the money that we got from the tobacco settlement goes to that.”

Hottinger says the bill enables the state to transfer $40 million from the Foundation for anti-tobacco efforts

“The $40 dollars is still going to be assigned for anti-smoking programs and things of that sort. Instead of being run by the foundation, it is going to be run by the Ohio Department of Health. The question is :Does $273 million need to be going towards an anti-smoking program? That’s an awful lot of money.”

Hottinger says the $230 million that was allocated to the foundation will be used on the jobs package.

“The governor estimates that the jobs bill will create 57,000 jobs in the state of Ohio and a lot of that money is being earmarked for the bio-sciences and bio-medical field.”

The State has filed a motion to have the foundation’s lawsuit dismissed, essentially arguing the foundation no longer exists due to the signing of the bill.