Prop. 99 Funds

Dr. Molly Coye’s letter (April 18) defending the state Department of Health’s taking $60 million away from the Proposition 99 tobacco education programs to meet other financial deficits in the department avoids the real issue: It isn’t her money. It’s the people’s money and they have made it clear how they wanted that money spent.

In Proposition 99, the people of California said they wanted the proceeds of the new tax on tobacco put into special trust funds and used only for the tobacco-related purposes specified in the proposition. Thousands of people throughout the state worked very hard to gather the half-million signatures necessary to get Proposition 99 on the ballot; thousands more worked very hard to get Proposition 99 passed by the voters by a 2-to-1 margin in the election. If they hadn’t done all that work, there wouldn’t be any money there for Coye to even talk about taking. What she is now proposing is no different from a failing business raiding the pension funds of its retired workers and using the money for purposes other than what it was gathered for.

All her professional life, Coye has preached, “Listen to the will of the people.” Well, it’s time for her to go back to her own lifelong principles and listen to the will of the people: Leave the money in programs of education and research against tobacco and smoking-related diseases, just the way the people wanted it in the first place.

PAUL R. TORRENS MD

Professor of Public Health

UCLA