Kizer, Honig Defend Anti-Smoking Project

The state’s top school and health officials defended California’s anti-smoking education campaign Thursday, but avoided criticizing Gov. Pete Wilson’s move to cut the program’s budget.

Health Services Director Kenneth Kizer and state Supt. of Public Instruction Bill Honig said the number of smokers in California is declining, and that the level may fall to 6.5% of the population by the end of the century.

Funding of California’s anti-smoking campaign was provided by Proposition 99, an initiative that voters passed in November, 1988, to raise the state tax on cigarettes from 10 cents to 35 cents a package.

The initiative would have made $120 million available for anti-tobacco education in the 1991-92 state budget. However, the new Republican governor last week endorsed a proposal to shift $72 million of the money to prenatal care.

“It’s a hard year for state government, and (he) Wilson is facing tough choices,” Kizer said at a news conference. “Prenatal care is one of the most important things you consider. This is a dilemma.”

Of continuing the campaign, Honig said, “We are going to have to make a case with the Wilson Administration.”

The anti-smoking campaign uses some money for television commercials, but most goes to grass-roots anti-tobacco propaganda in schools and churches. The two officials estimated that about 750,000 Californians have stopped smoking since Proposition 99 was passed.

Kizer also has proposed two other anti-tobacco measures. One calls for licensing of tobacco retailers in the same way liquor stores are licensed in California. Such licensing of tobacco shops is common in some foreign countries, but not in the United States.

He also has asked the State Teachers Retirement System and the Public Employees Retirement System to get rid of their estimated $546 million worth of stocks and bonds of tobacco companies. Similar requests have been made to the University of California, Stanford University and USC. Their holdings of tobacco company securities are not clear, but estimates range from $21 million up.