Health care advocates press on with measure

Andrew Glazer

COSTA MESA -- Local activists said they will continue campaigning

for an initiative to spend most of the county’s tobacco settlement money

on health care despite a lawsuit filed by the county to keep Measure H

off the November ballot.

“Morally, all of us feel it should be for health care,” said Jean

Forbath, director of the Share Our Selves free health clinic in Costa

Mesa and a member of the group behind the measure, the Committee of

Health Advocates to Reinvest the Tobacco Settlements.

The initiative proposes to use 80% of the county’s share of a national

tobacco settlement for anti-smoking programs. The county is expected to

receive $30 million each year for 25 years.

The county’s lawsuit, filed Friday, alleges that the measure would

violate state laws that dictate that county supervisors must decide how

to spend the funds.

In November, the Orange County Board of Supervisors voted to spend

most of an estimated $765 million the county will receive from tobacco

companies on jails and repaying debts.

The lawsuit is expected to be heard Aug. 30 in Orange County Superior

Court.

“It’s too bad they’re doing this,” Forbath said. “But it’s not a

surprise.”