Mississippi Supreme Court Issues Stay in Court-Ordered $20M Payments to Smoking Cessation Program

The Mississippi Supreme Court on Thursday voted 6-1 to freeze funds to the Partnership for Healthy Mississippi for tobacco cessation programs pending a county court decision to determine how funds from the 1997 tobacco settlement can be distributed, the Jackson Clarion-Ledger reports. In December 2000, former Attorney General Mike Moore (D) obtained a court order for the state to give $20 million of the tobacco settlement funds to PHM, which also provides funding for school nurses. Gov. Haley Barbour (R) maintains that the program is unconstitutional and that legislators, not courts, should decide how public money is spent. Barbour and the state Division of Medicaid and state Health Care Trust Fund are appealing a September ruling by Jackson County Chancery Judge Jaye Bradley that PHM does not have to return any of the money it received. Barbour on Thursday in a statement said that the ruling "is encouraging for those of us who believe it is unconstitutional for a local court to give state taxpayers' money to private organizations." Meanwhile, Barbour said his staff is determining how to continue funding nurses who were paid under the program. He added that he hopes the nurses will continue working until the 2007 state Legislature can appropriate funding (Kanengiser, Jackson Clarion-Ledger, 10/20).