Governor Tom Vilsack says he won’t budge from his proposal to increase state support of programs which help drug and alcohol addicts beat their addiction.Vilsack says by letting a drug addict or alcoholic get worse, they’ll eventually commit a crime that sends them to prison. Republicans propose 10-million dollars less state spending on substance abuse programs than Vilsack suggests. Vilsack says it’s cheaper to treat a substance abuser early on than to pay to have that person locked up in prison.The issue is one of many Republican legislators and the democrat Governor are debating as they decide how to spend the 55-million dollars the state will get from cigarette-makers as a result of the legal settlement with tobacco companies.Vilsack will accept keeping just under four-million dollars of the tobacco settlement in a special savings account — but Republicans want to keep as much as seven-million dollars in reserve rather than spend it on health care programs.
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