Use Tobacco Funds Toward Debt, Board Proposes

Orange County supervisors on Tuesday approved a ballot measure that would ask voters to spend 40% of the county’s $30 million in annual tobacco settlement funds on paying off the county’s considerable bankruptcy debt.

Measure G, approved despite a county attorney’s opinion that it is unconstitutional, will compete with Measure H on the Nov. 7 ballot. Measure H, which was drafted by the county medical and health care community and qualified with more than 115,000 signatures of registered voters, would spend 80% of the national tobacco settlement dollars on health care and anti-tobacco education programs.

Supervisors are challenging Measure H in court, saying it unconstitutionally limits the powers of future elected boards. But County Counsel Laurence M. Watson said Tuesday that Measure G is just as flawed.

“I feel strongly that Measure H is unconstitutional and that measure G would be equally unconstitutional,” Watson told supervisors during a public hearing Tuesday.

But Supervisors Chuck Smith, Jim Silva and Cynthia P. Coad approved the measure anyway, saying they would consider the new measure’s appropriateness after a court ruled on the constitutionality of Measure H.

However, it was unclear Tuesday whether a judge would make that decision before the November election. Watson said an Aug. 30 hearing is scheduled in Orange County Superior Court.

Measure G was proposed by Orange County Treasurer John M.W. Moorlach and calls for 40% of the tobacco settlement payments to help pay off the county’s $950-million bankruptcy debt. Moorlach proposed spending 42% on health care and 18% for public safety programs, including jails.

Measure H, would direct the remaining 20% to the Orange County Sheriff’s Department, for use on jails and other public safety matters.

Although Measure H was placed on the ballot first, it will appear after Measure G because such items are listed alphabetically. County Registrar of Voters Rosalyn Lever said that it was the Board of Supervisors’ right to designate letter titles for ballot measures, and that the board could choose any letter immediately before H or after.

Supporters of Measure H sharply criticized the board’s decision, calling it duplicitous and confusing to voters. Supervisor Todd Spitzer, who voted against the measure along with Supervisor Tom Wilson, said the majority of the board was being disingenuous when it said Measure H was unconstitutional but proposed their own measure for the ballot.

He said the majority was using every means it could to defeat Measure H. “This is becoming nothing more than a shell game,” Spitzer said.

A handful of representatives of county hospitals, physicians and community clinics insisted that the tobacco funds were meant for health care, and not debt servicing.

“You’re hijacking health care dollars to pay for the past mistakes of the board,” said Michele Revelle, of the Orange County Medical Assn. “This money is about more than a debt. It’s about a debt to society.”

In passing the measure, the majority said it was doing what was fiscally responsible.

Among other arguments, board member Silva said that prior to the county’s bankruptcy, hospitals and other health agencies often sought money from the county and thereby fueled its cycle of risky investments.

Fellow board member Coad said she didn’t believe two ballot measures would confuse voters. “I think it will give the voters a choice between good fiscal responsibility and spending on a special interest group.”