"Lucky Strike".

• Position: Brief Article

Greenblatt, Alan

Governing, October 2000, pp. 42-45.

The windfall created by the 46-state legal settlement with tobacco companies has made for interesting alliances within some state legislatures, and has erected some old partisan roadblocks in others. This article is an informative review of the tobacco settlement revenue spending plans that have been devised in various states. The lawsuit was brought by the states against the tobacco companies to recover the cost of smoking-related illnesses. All but six states have designed a plan for spending the revenues from the massive 1998 settlement. In four of the six--Arizona, Arkansas, Oregon, and Oklahoma--the decision has been thrown to the voters. In Missouri and Pennsylvania, the legislatures were unable to finalize a package for spending the money, but intend to address the issue again next year. Estimated at $246 billion over the next 25 years, the money from the settlement comes with very few strings attached. While many states decided to spend their share on health care (the original lawsuit was filed to rec over the cost of smoking related illness), others have devised elaborate plans to spend it in areas ranging from school construction to...