Posted on 06/18/2002 11:48:02 PM PDT by JohnHuang2
California is set to shut off nearly $61 million in funding for state tobacco prevention and education programs as a way for Gov. Gray Davis to balance the state's projected $24 billion deficit next year.
According to a Department of Health Services Tobacco Control Section advisory sent to state tobacco prevention and control officials June 7, the state "is no longer able to sustain funding for the media campaign, local projects and evaluation projects at the level it had thought possible" earlier this year.
If approved, state health officials, in the advisory, said "projects that will have their contracts terminated, funding awards withdrawn or budgets reduced" will be notified by letter in June and July.
Heath officials said available funding would be redirected to "projects addressing 18-24-year-olds" because it has the "highest smoking prevalence" of any age group. The department also has elected to cut funding to advanced youth tobacco control projects and funding for projects aimed at curtailing smoking in the entertainment industry.
Officials decided to leave funding intact for law-enforcement control projects, however, as well as all three "Tobacco Control Through the Arts" pilot programs.
An official with the Gold Country Regional Linkage Project, one of 11 statewide tobacco-prevention groups that will have their funding cut off by the state, told WorldNetDaily that his organization has been told by state officials it has three weeks to close out its grants before funding dries up.
"About 1,000 people will be out of jobs in about three weeks," said the official, requesting anonymity. "And they're trying to keep it quiet, probably because this is an election year for [Gov.] Davis."
The official said Davis – a noted tobacco opponent – has also used money from California's share of the landmark national tobacco settlement, as well as funds from a 1988 25-cents-per-pack tobacco tax – known locally as Proposition 99 – to plug holes in the budget. Prop. 99 was approved by voters to help pay for tobacco health and prevention programs, among other things.
The official said the state's budget shortfall was largely due to the mild nationwide recession and California's massive bailout of its energy companies last year. According to published figures, successive energy shortages and blackouts cost the state $12.6 billion in lost reserves, along with billions more in bond debt.
Ken August, a spokesman for the Department of Health's Tobacco Control Section, said no Prop. 99 money "will be redirected" to other agencies. Rather, he said the state had a "surplus" of unspent Prop. 99 money that would be utilized to offset Davis' proposed budget cuts. And, he said, Davis' proposal included a new 50-cents-per-pack tax hike on each pack of cigarettes.
"We've been quick to clarify that all of the money that is generated by Prop. 99 is going to the various sources as intended by the law," he said, adding that the state's tobacco-control budget for next year, under Davis' plan, would be reduced from the current level of $134.5 million to $88.4 million in Fiscal Year 2003.
When pressed, August said he was uncertain why Prop. 99 funds were not spent during previous fiscal years.
But he said that Prop. 99 funding "has been dropping" for a few years due to an overall reduction in smoking throughout the state. And, he said, state-sponsored research shows that with each tax hike, youth smoking drops "substantially."
The cuts, if approved, "are not going to reverse years" of anti-smoking attitudes throughout the state.
For his part, Davis has championed his budget as the one of the state's best fiscal options.
"I've proposed a responsible, balanced budget," Davis said last month as he presented a revised budget to lawmakers. "Closing this budget gap has been an extremely difficult process. But the people of this state elected me for exactly this reason: to make the tough decisions, and that's exactly what I've done."
The plan combines a series of budget cuts, revenue increases "and a combination of refinancing, borrowing and transfers," said a May 14 statement from the governor's office.
"More than anything else, this budget reflects a commitment to our children and their future," Davis said, noting that a third of the plan – $8 billion – comes from budget cuts. "Even in the hardest of times, we cannot and will not turn our backs on the progress our children have made."
Some line items were fully funded, however.
Davis' revised budget "provides funding for enrollment growth for 80,000 students, cost-of-living adjustments for schools, and increases per-pupil spending to $7,183 – an increase of nearly $1,500 since Gov. Davis took office," said the statement.
Tobacco-control officials remained upbeat about the funding Davis has allocated, but the Gold Country official said the state will suffer without the funding.
"Without this money, a lot of the networking, the advocacy and tobacco prevention efforts will cease," said the official. That's important, the official continued, "because California was at the forefront of many tobacco-control and prevention efforts nationwide."
Does anyone know if Gray Davis has any children?
After bloating the state government spending by $20-25 billion over the last three years, he should have been able to accommodate the entire projected $24 billion deficit through budget cuts alone.
Instead, he has decided to borrow $16 billion against our children's futures, including borrowing against the entire tobacco settlement's expected payments (for the next two decades) and using up expected future tax receipts.
I didn't think so; thank you for confirming. Gray Davis is to be commended for caring so much about other people's children. He probably "feels our pain," too.
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