Charities, legislators propose uses for tobacco settlement

By MATT WUNSCHE
Collegian Staff Writer

Because of the recent settlement with tobacco companies, Pennsylvania will receive about $11 billion during the next 25 years, and with such a cash windfall, at least two different proposals have been made for how to spend the money.

Last fall, the tobacco industry reached a settlement with the federal government will result in the distribution of more than $200 million to states. Each state will determine how its funds will be used.

The American Cancer Society, the American Heart Association and the American Lung Association have worked together to formulate their own plan for how best to use the new funds, said Diane Phillips, director of public advocacy for the Heart Association.

The groups' proposal calls for a majority of the money to go into tobacco prevention and health care, said Greg Laur of the Heart Association.

Thirty percent of the funding would be used for tobacco prevention and control, including advertising, education, law enforcement and biomedical research programs, Phillips said.

In another proposal, supported by state Rep. Dennis O'Brien, R-Philadelphia, chair of the House Health and Human Services Committee, various cancer research hospitals would receive money from the settlement.

O'Brien said he is backing a plan that would fund cancer centers statewide, including the Hershey Medical Center, University of Pittsburgh, Fox Chase Cancer Center, Temple University and the University of Pennsylvania.

"We should look at what the cancer centers did as a model," he said. "They are all working together to make a difference. I don't think people knew about the quality and quantity of research being done."

Investing in the cancer centers will be an economic, as well as health care, benefit for the state, he said.

The legislature will listen to all the different appeals for the money, O'Brien said. The ideas will be reviewed by a conference committee and then presented to the General Assembly for a vote.

He expects the legislature to be able to come to an agreement without traditional partisan bickering about how to spend the settlement money.

"We need a program that will have some impact on health and some impact on the economy," he said. "We need to place emphasis on how we can match settlement dollars."