Supervisors Reject Negotiations on Spending Tobacco Windfall

Orange County supervisors Tuesday stuck to their mid-March timetable to decide how to spend a $912-million tobacco settlement windfall, gambling that a proposed statewide initiative won’t force them to spend it all on health needs.

In doing so, supervisors rejected a plea from a local health care coalition to start an intense two-week negotiation period to divide the money among jail expansion, debt repayment and unmet health needs before a Jan. 20 deadline.

That’s when two statewide physicians groups say they will begin collecting signatures for a ballot measure to require counties and the state to spend all money from the national tobacco settlement on health care.

If it gets on the ballot and passes in November, Orange County supervisors would lose any chance to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on debt and jails.

Statewide sponsors had offered to drop the initiative’s restrictions on county spending if Orange County supervisors agreed with the local health care coalition on sharing an estimated $35 million a year coming to the county over the next 25 years.

The statewide groups--the California Medical Assn. and the American College of Emergency Physicians, California Chapter--had added the county provision to target Orange County because it is the only major county planning to spend tobacco money on something other than health needs, CMA spokesman Steven Thompson said.

The county and health care groups have been negotiating how to spend the money for months, with the pace increasing since mid-December.

Orange County’s plan for spending the money, which was drawn in September, originally called for spending as little as 20% on health care, though that was raised to about 30% in recent weeks.

“We just can’t support that,” said Sam Roth, spokesman for the coalition of health care advocates.

The health care groups favor a spending scheme that would have nearly all the money go for health care, if state and federal funds can be found to pay for all or most of the jail expansion by 2005.

Sen. Joe Dunn (D-Santa Ana) has backed the advocates’ plan, proposing to seek funds for expansion and operations of the jail from statewide prison funding programs. In addition, he would offer enabling legislation so the county could sell jail bonds guaranteed by the tobacco funds. Health care groups want the county to commit to a spending plan as part of the state legislation.

A report from Orange County Chief Financial Officer Gary Burton criticized the proposal because it would tightly restrict future boards, requiring them to spend money on health care despite future fiscal challenges or changed circumstances.

“What if universal health insurance is approved, this precludes us spending on other than health needs,” said Burton.

Health care advocates said any plan by the county, whether to build a jail or reduce debt with the tobacco cash, also amounts to limiting the flexibility of future boards.

Supervisor Tom Wilson said the county cannot meet the January deadline and wants to wait until March when the health advocates and the Health Care Agency can complete a detailed plan on how any health care allotment would be spent.

“I cannot respond to an artificially established deadline,” he said. “It is like having a gun pointed to your head.”