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Bud Chiles: Don't Mess With Florida's Anti-Tobacco Fund

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By WILLIAM MARCH and CATHERINE DOLINSKI

wmarch@tampatrib.com cdolinski@tampatrib.com

Published: January 9, 2009

TALLAHASSEE - The son of the late Gov. Lawton Chiles and a prominent Tampa lawyer pleaded with Democratic legislators Thursday to prevent Florida's anti-tobacco trust fund from being raided to balance the state budget.

"Please, let's stop this madness," said Bud Chiles, whose father inspired the anti-tobacco lawsuit that won the money for the trust fund.

Chiles and Steve Yerrid, one of the "dream team" of trial lawyers who won the $11 billion settlement in the lawsuit in 1997, appeared to recognize that the Democrats can't stop trust fund money from being used to plug the state budget gap.

Instead, they're seeking assurances that the money taken out will be repaid.

Interest from the trust fund pays for child welfare, elderly and children's health care programs, and anti-tobacco education programs.

"I'd bet that you don't have the votes" to stop the money from being used, Yerrid told a gathering of the Democratic House members, a small minority in the House. "If you go down, at least go down by getting assurances that monies will be repaid, the mission will go on."

Yerrid and Chiles said they had discussed the issue with Gov. Charlie Crist and received "assurances" from him about replenishing the fund if it's drawn down to solve the state's budget deficit. Republican legislative leaders also say that's the plan.

Yerrid threatened to sue the state if those assurances aren't upheld. "I'm no stranger to the courthouse," he said.

Republican legislative leaders are considering taking money from the Chiles Endowment and other trust funds (money i with a dedicated purpose) to plug a $2.3 billion deficit in this year's state budget.

The Chiles fund would take the biggest hit.

The Senate proposes to take $700 million. The state House would take $400 million from the fund to meet this year's state spending, and possibly an additional $600 million to replenish the state's rainy day fund.

The Chiles fund still has a guaranteed income source, noted House Speaker-designate Dean Cannon. "It's provided a mechanism by which over $400 million a year is paid by the settling tobacco companies into the settlement," he said. "So even if we took $400 million out, there's going to be a new $400 million that gets put into that fund every December."

In a letter this week to legislative leaders, State Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink called the plan "penny-wise and pound-foolish," saying it would leave only $270 million in an endowment that contained more than $2.1 billion just seven months ago. That, she said, would destroy interest payments the fund provides, normally about $55 million.

"The Legislature would be effectively killing the Chiles Fund at a time when the faltering economy means Floridians will depend on services like children's health care more than ever," she said.

Reporter William March can be reached at (813) 259-7761.

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