Wilson: Spend Tobacco Cash on Health
In a move likely to raise eyebrows among fellow county supervisors, Supervisor Tom Wilson on Tuesday became the first board member to publicly endorse a November ballot initiative that would award the lion’s share of money from a major tobacco settlement to local health-care concerns.
“It doesn’t seem like we’re cohesive on this one,” Wilson said of the board’s unsuccessful efforts to decide how to allocate the $30 million to $38 million annually the county can expect over the next 25 years.
The money is the county’s share of the settlement windfall from a major class-action suit brought by the federal government against the tobacco industry.
“This was a tobacco settlement [that] relates to health care,” Wilson said. “It’s found money for the county, which shouldn’t be diverting it away.”
The initiative--sponsored by a citizens’ group of physicians and health-care concerns--would allocate 80% of the tobacco settlement money to local health care, and 20% to law enforcement.
The Board of Supervisors had earlier failed to agree on various allocation formulas that would have awarded smaller portions of the money to health care.
“We should have come to an equitable agreement,” Wilson said on Tuesday. “Since we couldn’t, I’m just going to go for the health care.”
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