Attorney General pushes
for tobacco settlement

By Lori Tighe
Star-Bulletin

Hawaii could receive well over $879 million if the state settles its lawsuit against the tobacco industry as early as election time next month.

Attorney General Margery Bronster told the Coalition for Tobacco Free Hawaii yesterday that she favored the settlement now being negotiated for all the states by eight other state attorneys general with the tobacco industry.

The suits claim the tobacco industry withheld information on the damaging and addicting effects of tobacco, causing states to pay billions of dollars in Medicaid for the poor who suffered from tobacco-related illnesses.

Hawaii claimed it has spent $1 billion in medical costs over the years treating diseases including lung, mouth and throat cancers, and emphysema.

Once the attorneys general reach the best deal, Hawaii can sign on and receive "hundreds of millions of dollars," Bronster said. Otherwise the state is "ready, willing and quite able" to take their case to trial Sept. 7, 1999.

"I wish we can do it through settlement, not through litigation, because it's the fastest way," Bronster said. "If we settle now, we'll get a considerable amount of money. It would be terrific for the state."

Four states have already settled and received substantial sums. Mississippi received $3.6 billion; Texas received $15.3 billion; Florida received $11.3 billion; and Minnesota received $6.5 billion -- all to be paid over 25 years, said Clifford Chang,director of the Coalition for a Tobacco Free Hawaii.

"My very strong impression was of how strongly Margery leans toward a settlement," said Chang, commenting on Bronster's update at the Pacific Club in Honolulu. "No one has seen the settlement and there's a lot of concern about public health provisions."

The Coalition for a Tobacco Free Hawaii wants to see the tobacco industry curtailed from advertising to minors. But Bronster said the state couldn't curb advertising in general because advertising is legal.

The coalition also wants some settlement money earmarked for tobacco education and prevention.

Any settlement money goes into the state's general fund and the Legislature decides how to spend it, said Jeffrey Ono, a lead private attorney arguing the state's case.

Bronster said Hawaii's case is considered among the strongest in the nation because "we have lots of evidence and no statute of limitations."

In August, Circuit Judge Kevin Chang gave the state the go-ahead in all 19 counts of its lawsuit against the tobacco companies after the companies tried to have them dismissed.

Mark Bennett, a Hawaii attorney representing one of the tobacco companies, is on the mainland and could not be reached for comment.