Attorney General urges lawmakers not to change the way tobacco settlement money is used

With a looming state budget crisis, Republican legislators are considering new uses for the money tobacco companies have agreed to pay the state. About nine million dollars from the tobacco settlement has been used this past year for an anti-smoking program aimed at teenagers. Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller says that’s a bad idea. Miller says the state should not back away from its commitment to reduce smoking because lives are being saved. The rest of the 54-million dollars the state’s gotten this year from tobacco companies has been used for health-related programs. Miller says tobacco use among Iowa’s youth is going down as a result of the “Just Eliminate Lies” anti-smoking campaign. Cigarette-makers agreed to pay states millions after state attorneys general sued to recover the money states paid to treat low-income and elderly people with tobacco-related illnesses.