MPR: Putting Out the Fire: The Tobacco Money

Putting Out the Fire: The Tobacco Money
By Laura McCallum
October 4, 1999
Part one of a three-part series.

Earlier this year, Governor Ventura and state lawmakers agreed to set aside nearly a billion dollars of the state's tobacco settlement for smoking prevention, public health and medical education. Since then, there have been a series of news reports about Minnesota falling behind other states in its efforts to prevent teens from smoking. Eventually the state will have $25 million a year in endowment interest to spend on anti-smoking efforts.

But for now, all state officials can do is plan for the money.

FIRST, LET'S CLEAR UP the biggest misconception about the tobacco settlement endowments; state officials are not sitting on a big pile of money, gleefully handing out $1,000 bills to deserving causes. The legislature did set aside nearly $1 billion of the state's $6 billion settlement, but the state can only spend the interest, not the principle. And the five endowments won't even get their first interest payment until January.

Malcolm: We keep on responding to questions from the media and communities who think that the money already exists, and are wondering where it is, and why it's not already being used for programming.

Smoking in Minnesota
Tobacco use is the leading cause of preventable death and disease in Minnesota.
Smoking causes approximately 17 percent of all deaths in Minnesota each year (6,400 deaths in 1995 alone).

Smoking costs Minnesota approximately $1.3 billion annually, the equivalent of approximately $3.36 for every pack of cigarettes sold, or $277 per Minnesota resident per year.

More children under 18 are starting to smoke on a daily basis than any other age group.

Approximately 17,000 Minnesota children become new daily smokers each year.

After increasing sharply during the mid-'90s, monthly use among ninth graders has stabilized at 30 percent. Use among high school seniors increased throughout the '90s and remains higher than the national average (42 percent vs. 35 percent).

Smoking among adults is virtually stable at 22 percent.

Per-capita tobacco use in Minnesota has declined only seven percent since 1990, markedly less than the 15-percent decline nationwide.

Source: Minnesota Department of Health

State Health Commissioner Jan Malcolm told a Minnesota Senate panel last week that her office is using this time to plan for the first interest payment. The health department will oversee the biggest chunk of the money in three tobacco prevention and public-health endowments. Lawmakers are demanding results - reduce youth smoking rates by 30 percent over the next five years. The newly-appointed director of the health department's endowments, Mary Sheehan, says the goal is appropriate.

Sheehan: I think that's reasonable, and I think that's do-able, and I think the public has a right to hold us to that level of accountability.

Teen smoking is on the rise in Minnesota - from 31 percent of high-school seniors in 1992 to 42 percent in 1998, higher than the national average. Sheehan says health officials need to come up with new ways of tackling the problem, because it's obvious many of the old messages haven't worked. She says once the health department gets the money in January, it's planning to launch a $7 to $8 million public-education campaign.

Sheehan: We need to get the public's attention, we need to get kids' attention that this isn't business as usual, this is a different way of looking at this issue.

Sheehan says the campaign will include television and radio ads, borrowing heavily from other states that have successfully reduced teen smoking rates, such as Florida and Massachusetts. An advisory group, with representatives from public health, community groups, and anti-smoking organizations, has been helping the health department develop a plan for spending the money, but Sheehan says the effort will be driven by young people.

Sheehan: We will not be successful in this effort if we don't fully engage kids. And I'm talking about kids representing all racial and ethnic groups, urban, suburban, rural, kids who are homeless, kids who've smoked, kids who've quit smoking, kids who have never smoked.

The two teens who serve on the advisory group want to start a statewide youth movement to fight teen smoking, as Florida did. Andy Berndt, a senior at Mounds View High School, says teens can judge whether anti-smoking ads will work, and try to convince their peers not to smoke. He says the advisory group includes some heavy-hitters in the anti-smoking movement, and with a roomful of experts, the group sometimes has a hard time reaching consensus. Berndt says the group needs to let kids make decisions about how to spend the settlement money.

For More Information
See a collection of MPR stories following the conclusion of the tobacco trial in 1998.

Berndt: I've received lip service for so long. I mean, I've been in groups and nothing's come of them. And this - I'm really determined not to happen again. Because it's a waste of my time, and I don't want to see that happen again. I want things to get done, cause now we have the people, we have the money, and we have the time to do it.

Lawmakers involved in the issue say they're encouraged by what they see so far. Republican Fran Bradley of Rochester, who chairs the House Health and Human Services Policy Committee, was an early critic of forming endowments with the tobacco settlement. But Bradley says now that the issue's been decided, he wants to make sure the money will reduce teen smoking.

Bradley: One of the concerns I had, quite frankly, was that this was going to take on sort of a do-gooder "we'll do things that feel good." Like I said, we can all sing Kumbaya together, but that it wouldn't have the substance that I as an engineer, and as a pragmatist, would want to see.

Rep. Fran Bradley (R-Rochester)

Bradley says to his surprise, the plan being developed does appear to address his concerns.

Bradley: It calls for, we really need to be collaborative, we need to engage kids, and I said "Oh, that's fine. You're going to engage kids, right? What you're going to do is engage young adults that think like adults do, and you're not going to talk to the kids that smoke, or the kids that stopped smoking, or whatever!" And what they're doing is exactly what I'd hoped to do.

Although the anti-smoking endowments have gotten most of the public and legislative attention, lawmakers also set aside a sizable portion of the tobacco money for a purpose that has nothing to do with smoking. Two medical-education endowments will help alleviate a financial crunch at the University of Minnesota's Academic Health Center, and fund medical education in hospitals. Health officials say Minnesota policy makers were visionary to set aside the money in endowments that will continue to fund public health needs for generations. Meanwhile, Minnesotans should begin noticing anti-smoking ads early next year.

In part two of our tobacco series, MPR's Patty Marsicano looks at the first year of the Minnesota Partnership for Action Against Tobacco, which was created by the state's tobacco settlement.

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