Utah anti-smoking effort draws mixed reviews

By Jesse Fruhwirth
SALT LAKE CITY — After 10 years and $262 million in receipts from tobacco companies, Utah is being both criticized and praised for its use of the settlement money.

The state was criticized this month by a consortium of health groups that say not enough is being spent on anti-tobacco advertising.

A report by the same consortium, however, ranked Utah 17th among the states for its anti-tobacco spending, which is robust when compared to more than half of other states’ spending.

The report, “A Decade of Broken Promises,” was released by the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, American Heart Association, American Cancer Society, Cancer Action Network and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

The master settlement agreement was negotiated in 1998 by the attorneys general of several states and the tobacco companies to settle claims of health costs caused by tobacco use.

Utah’s share of the settlement is paid annually and will be roughly $42 million this year, according to the state’s 2009 appropriations report.

Add to that figure tobacco tax revenue the state will generate in 2009, and the “Broken Promises” authors say the state will generate $105 million in tobacco-derived revenue.
Just a fraction — $8.2 million — will be spent on anti-tobacco initiatives.

By contrast, the report claims, the tobacco companies will spend $57.9 million in Utah this year to advertise tobacco.

“I’m not sure I can tell the Legislature what to do, but the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids is saying that more can be done, and I think we agree,” said David Neville, spokesman for the state’s tobacco-prevention and -control program.

“Everybody agrees tobacco afflicts too many kids these days.”

Of particular concern to the authors of “Broken Promises” is that states may be tempted to raid their tobacco funds to meet budget shortfalls in other areas.

That happened in Utah in 2003, when lawmakers took $44.4 million to meet a budget shortfall, and again in 2004, when another $9.8 million in tobacco settlement money was used to pad the budget.

But health advocates also say much of Utah’s tobacco money that is not going to anti-tobacco campaigns is being used on important programs.

The State Children’s Health Insurance Program — or SCHIP — for example, will receive $12.3 million this year from the state’s tobacco fund. The program insures children whose families have too much income to qualify for Medicaid, but are unable to afford private insurance.

Davis County Health Director Lewis Garrett said he understands there are competing priorities.

“In public health, we learned long ago that prevention is cheaper and more effective than treatment after a problem occurs,” he said.

“In Utah, having said that, I would much rather see money going to prevention than any other activity, but some money from the master settlement agreement has gone to the (SCHIP) program, and that’s a very worthy public health cost.

“I can’t be too critical of how the state has decided to spend that money. … I understand why they’ve done what they’ve done, and I think they were very legitimate decisions to make.”

Another $2 million of tobacco money this year will go to the state’s drug courts, $4 million to the University of Utah Health Sciences, and $275,200 to the Office of the Attorney General.

Almost $50 million in tobacco money rests in the state’s Permanent Trust Fund, one of two accounts used to collect and distribute the money.

Neville said the state’s anti-tobacco agents do well with what funds they are given.
“We have a comprehensive program that targets just about everything,” he said.
That includes programs targeting 12- to 18-year-olds to persuade them to not start using tobacco, adults to get them to quit, and cities and municipalities to convince them to ban smoking in parks and workplaces.

Garrett said about $115,000 in master settlement account money trickles down to his county each year and he believes that money has been well-spent.

“Some of that money from the (account) goes into retailer education and prevention of sale to minors. We’ve seen our sale rates to minors drop substantially since we were able to put money in that program,” he said.

One tobacco statistic top-ranking Utah holds has not changed, Neville said.
“We have the lowest smoking rates in the nation. We’re the leader in the nation.”

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