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Senate approves amended tobacco‑settlement spending plan after heated debate
Summary
After extensive floor debate and multiple substitute amendments, the Utah Senate on Feb. 28, 2000 approved a second substitute of Senate Bill 15 allocating tobacco-settlement receipts between a permanent trust and near-term spending for prevention, drug courts, children’s health insurance and university health sciences; the package passed on a 17‑vote majority and will go to the House.
The Senate on Feb. 28, 2000 extensively debated how to allocate proceeds from the national tobacco settlement. Sponsors said the bill creates two restricted state accounts: a permanent trust (to receive a portion of receipts over time) and a restricted spending account for near‑term appropriations. The floor considered multiple competing amendments that shifted funds between a long-term endowment and immediately spendable prevention and treatment programs.
Senator Fulton, describing the package, outlined a distribution in earlier versions that included $3,000,000 for tobacco prevention, $3,000,000 for drug courts, $4,000,000 to the University of Utah Health Sciences and $5,500,000 for the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIPS). Senators argued over whether more money should be front-loaded to prevention; Senator Howell and others urged substantially larger prevention investments (proposals up to $6,500,000 were put forward). Sponsors stressed the need to balance immediate prevention with preserving capital in a trust to sustain funding over time. The transcript records numerous floor amendments: substitute amendments proposing increases to prevention, language about how disputed attorney-fee funds (about $9,000,000 held) would be shared, and direction for uses of annual interest from an endowment.
After divisions, roll calls, and substitute motions, the Senate adopted a package as amended and the second substitute of SB15 passed to the House for consideration by that chamber; the clerk recorded the bill as passing with 17 aye votes. The transcript shows proponents pressed for both immediate prevention funding and a durable trust, while opponents argued for a larger immediate prevention commitment. The final adopted package reflected negotiated compromises among competing amendments and preserved reporting and oversight language for implementation and investment of the endowment.
