Add the Tobacco Settlement Endowment Trust to the list of voter-approved decisions that legislators are trying to tamper with.
Voters created the trust in 2000 and wisely gave it independence from the Legislature and protection within the state Constitution.
Under the voter-approved mechanism, money that comes to the state from the 1998 settlement of a lawsuit brought against Big Tobacco by 46 states is split, with the endowment getting 75 percent. By statute, the rest is divided between the Legislature (18.75 percent) and the Attorney General’s Office (6.25 percent).
The endowment’s 75 percent isn’t spent. It’s invested, and the trust spends the earnings on health-care programs including efforts to discourage tobacco use, obesity prevention and research.
Currently, the trust has a little over $1 billion in its endowment, which continues to grow; trust programs have allowed the state to avoid some $1.24 billion in costs.
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Some of the better known programs with endowment funding are the state medical loan repayment program, medical residencies through the Oklahoma State University Center for Health Sciences and the OSU Medical Authority, and programs to help Oklahomans stop smoking.
The endowment’s programs work. We have more doctors, fewer smokers and a healthier future as a result. (You can read more about the endowment’s successes at tulsaworld.com/cigarettestats).
Rep. Scott Biggs, R-Chickasha, has proposed diverting future funding from the endowment so it can be used exclusively for health-care causes in rural Oklahoma. After all, the health-care problems of Tulsa and Oklahoma City have all been solved, right? (You may remember Biggs is one of the legislators trying to undo the voters’ work on State Questions 780 and 781 too.)
Meanwhile, Rep. Mark McBride, R-Moore, wants an amount equal to half of the 10-year average earnings generated by the trust to be diverted to schools for various health-care needs, including mental health services, physical education programs and school nurses.
Voters knew what they were doing when they set up the Tobacco Settlement Endowment Trust. It was created the way it was as a message to legislators: Hands off!
There’s plenty of problems available for legislators to solve. It’s hard to understand why they keep trying to unsolve problems the people have already taken care of.