At his press conference on Monday to announce a new $1.5 billion economic stimulus package, Governor Ted Strickland unveiled plans for a $250 million college-internship program intended to quell the dreaded brain drain currently afflicting Ohio.
And in a coup for committed smokers, Strickland’s internship program means certain death for the Ohio Tobacco Prevention Foundation (OTPF); the new program will poach $240 million from OTPF’s budget, leaving the nicotine-haters with a measly $40 million with which to save you and your lungs from a long, slow, but pretty relaxed (and skinny!) death. And it isn’t the first time the legislature has used OTPF, funded as a result of successful litigation against big tobacco companies, as its own get-out-of-jail-free card. …
This article appears in Apr 2-8, 2008.
I agree! Makes you wonder who supports his campaign fund. Who’s best interests do these three have in mind–Ohioans or Big Tobacco?