Swinford: Buy From My Buddy Or I’ll Gut The Program

House State Affairs Committee Chairman David Swinford (R-Dumas) is threatening to remove more than $5 million in money for anti-smoking campaigns from the budget in an attempt to persuade state health officials to dedicate millions to an unproven anti-smoking product promoted by a campaign contributor.  The Chron notes:

Swinford’s involvement with an anti-smoking product may seem unlikely for a West Texas grain dealer, but he has proved a faithful advocate for “A Short Story of Life,” a cardboard cost-of-smoking calculator shaped like a pack of cigarettes.

When users move a sliding panel up or down, the device reveals how much is lost in years lived and dollars spent, depending on the number of cigarettes smoked.

The cardboard calculators were developed by Swinford’s friend in the grain business for 30 years, Panhandle birdseed dealer Rodney Burd, along with Burd’s brother, a North Dakota professor.

Swinford said Rodney Burd has supported his campaigns financially because they share beliefs. But Burd’s campaign contributions jumped from $100 in 2002 to $1,000 a year since Swinford began pushing the state to buy Burd’s anti-smoking product.

Burd said he’s motivated by his concern about children smoking, and for $3.7 million, he could put the calculators in the hands of fourth- through 12th-graders statewide.

State health officials have resisted, noting that legislative budget writers have mandated that smoking-prevention funds be spent only on programs that have been scientifically tested and proven effective.

There’s no proof Burd’s calculator will actually change behavior, state health experts told Swinford, and adopting it would deplete funds needed to continue a concentrated, comprehensive anti-smoking campaign that is reducing smoking rates in East Texas with its high rates of lung disease.

That response, which Swinford has equated to “stonewalling” that neglects children statewide, drew his wrath at a public hearing last year.

“If I were you, I would be putting a plan together because I’m coming after you guys,” Swinford warned during a state affairs committee meeting that attracted little attention last summer. “If it’s not a hell of a lot better by the time we get back here in January 2007, I promise you the first bill I’ll file will be to gut your program and move it. Is that plain enough?”

TEA spokeswoman DeEtta Culbertson said the education agency would implement another smoking program if the Legislature orders it, but said, “The state health curriculum for K-12 includes recognizing, learning about, analyzing and describing the harmful effects of alcohol, tobacco and other drugs.”

The issue goes before both the State Affairs Committee and the House Public Health Committee this spring.

A fight over tobacco prevention dollars might come as a surprise, considering the multibillion-dollar tobacco settlement Texas won from big tobacco companies in 1998, said Dr. Philip Huang, the health department’s medical director for chronic disease prevention.

“There’s real money on the table. The tobacco industry paid $17.3 billion because of the real costs to the state,” said Huang, adding that tobacco-related illnesses have accounted for 15 percent of all Medicaid spending for the poor and disabled.

Yet, the 25-year settlement has proved a tempting funding source for general state spending and lawmakers have slashed the Health Department’s tobacco prevention program in half — from $15 million in 2003 to only $7 million a year now, health officials testified.

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