Judge to Ohio: Keep hands off tobacco money

COLUMBUS (AP) — A judge’s ruling Tuesday permanently prevents Ohio from spending $250 million in anti-tobacco funds on Medicaid and other programs, potentially blowing a hole in the state budget leaders approved last month.

Franklin County Common Pleas Judge David Fais issued a permanent injunction against the use of the money, which already had been frozen by a preliminary ruling he had made. Fais said the state had other options to raise the money, including bonds, and that drying up the tobacco fund would lead to more tobacco-related illnesses and treatment costs.

The depletion of the tobacco fund “would result in a substantial increase in tobacco-related premature death and disease in Ohio,” Fais wrote in his opinion.

Gov. Ted Strickland immediately asked Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray to appeal the ruling, spokeswoman Amanda Wurst said.

“The governor was disappointed the judge took nearly a year and half to make this decision,” Wurst said. “Today’s ruling will jeopardize services to Ohioans at a time when they need them the most.”

The money that had originally been set aside for the Ohio Tobacco Prevention Foundation was what remained of about $10 billion Ohio received through the 1998 national settlement with major tobacco companies.

State leaders originally had wanted to use the money as part of a $1.6 billion state-level stimulus package to invest in industries such as biomedicine and advanced energy. Fais’ initial ruling prevented them from doing so, but lawmakers spent the money in the latest two-year budget on the expansion of health care for children from low-income families, optional Medicaid services such as vision and dental coverage, and county child welfare services.

The expansion of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program to include children from families who are between 200 percent and 300 percent of the Federal Poverty Level will be delayed because of the ruling, Wurst said.

The state believes it can continue funding the optional Medicaid services with other Medicaid funds through December, at which point it would have to approach the Legislature.