July 2000 • Volume 6 • Number 7
Chapters tell states
Use tobacco settlement funds for healthBY SHERI PORTER
When Illinois Gov. George Ryan announced a recent town hall meeting and invited citizens to speak their minds, FP Christine Petty, M.D., grabbed the chance. She marched to the microphone to voice her disapproval of the state's recently passed 2001 budget that targets 53 percent ($760 million) of the state's initial tobacco settlement money for property tax relief.
"I think that it's an absolute misuse of the tobacco money," Petty, president of the Illinois AFP, told FP Report. Her statement at the May 4 meeting -- that Illinois has an obligation to use tobacco money for health purposes and smoking prevention -- brought a round of applause from the audience of 300.
Petty, of Rockford, Ill., promises to go back and fight for more money in next year's budget. "The more people we can get involved, and the more people we can get talking to our legislators, the more likely the tobacco money will be spent in the proper way," said Petty.
Christine Petty, M.D., questions Illinois Gov. George Ryan about the allocation of tobacco settlement money at a town hall meeting.
Petty's action exemplifies the way AAFP chapters are bending the ears of their state officials. John Jordan, executive vice president of the Pennsylvania chapter, said his chapter dogged the legislature relentlessly. "We testified in six hearings," he said.
When PAFP leadership and members testified before a committee of the state legislature, they went prepared with handouts tailor-made for the committee. "There's no doubt that the legislative body knows our position on tobacco," said Jordan.
Laura Hahn, Indiana AFP's director of government relations, said she made sure that members were informed. "We did some fax blasting to our membership about calling our legislators, and we provided them with background information on the pending legislative bill," Hahn said.
Hahn said coalition-building helped the cause. The combined voices of the IAFP, Indiana State Medical Association, Indiana Primary Healthcare Association and others helped drown out the appeals of other groups "that came out of the woodwork in hopes that they would receive some of the money," she said.
Mississippi AFP President-elect Tim Alford, M.D., of Kosciusko recently learned that 20 FP residencies will be funded through interest earned on Mississippi's share of the money, which totals $4 billion.
"We knew it wasn't quite manna from heaven; we knew we had to do some work to make it a reality," Alford said. "One of the things we did was keep our ear to the ground -- so when this bill about funding residencies got dropped in, our chapter swung into action. We immediately alerted our membership to contact legislators asking them to support this bill."
The state has allotted up to $25,000 per year per resident for the next 10 years.
Alford couldn't be happier. "Since FPs are the best trained to advocate against tobacco, who else would you rather put on the battlefield than a family physician to fight that cause?" he asked.
FP Report is published by the AAFP News Department.
Copyright © 2000 by American Academy of Family Physicians.
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