Tobacco opponents worry anti-smoking efforts will be curtailed

Anti-tobacco advocates Friday decried spending cuts to state programs that are deterring young people from starting to use tobacco products and Branstad administration efforts to reshape tobacco prevention and control strategies -- with some warning of legal action to block changes that could reverse smoking cessation successes.

Without dissent, members of the Tobacco Use Prevention & Control Commission approved a resolution urging Mariannette Miller-Meeks, director of the state Department of Public Health, to follow state law by maintaining a full-time director whose sole responsibility is to guide the tobacco prevention and control division and to keep efforts to discourage young people from smoking a priority as the agency struggles with shrinking resources.

“We may have limited resources but tobacco companies don't,” said Gary Streit, a commission member from Cedar Rapids who authored the resolution.

Streit expressed concern that state funding to combat tobacco use was cut from $7.2 million in fiscal 2012 to about $2.8 million available to operate the state's Quitline, contract with community partnerships, and target efforts to keep young people from engaging in unhealthy tobacco-related practices. He said the continued success of those programs were “at a pivotal point” given the state's significantly lower funding commitment.

Commission members also expressed concern that Bonnie Mapes, the former head of the agency's Division of Tobacco Use Prevention and Control, took early retirement after serving in the post since 2004 after Miller-Meeks informed her that her position was being terminated due to funding constraints. They passed a separate resolution commending her for her years of service in helping to reduce tobacco usage among Iowa adults and minors.

After the commission meeting, Miller-Meeks issued a written statement saying: "The department received counsel from the Attorney General's Office as we explored the options available to meet the Legislature's and commission's priorities of funding the Quitline and community partnerships. The department's actions are within those statutory requirements.

“Our efforts directed toward prevention will continue, especially in the arena of social media, which is becoming an extremely important resource in public health. Combining our efforts with other departments and state agencies in a collaborative fashion will further enable us to reach out to youth with prevention messages. Additionally, many of our federal grants have a tobacco prevention requirement targeted at both youth and adults, so we will persist in our engagement,” she added in her statement.

Patricia Quinlisk, the health department's medical director who has been named interim division director following Mapes' retirement, said the tobacco division faces “some challenging times ahead” but she told commissioners she is committed to making the best use of limited funds in a “resource-poor environment.

“I think there are going to be some challenges but I believe we can get through it,” she said.

However, Sen. Herman Quirmbach, D-Ames, a member of the commission who participated in Friday's meeting by phone, said he believed Branstad administration plans to reorganize the agency and downsize the tobacco division with no full-time director was in violation of state law.

Sen. Jack Hatch, D-Des Moines, who co-chairs the House-Senate budget subcommittee that sets the health department's budget, agreed and said any planned reorganization of public health functions could not happen without a law change that would not be supported by Democrats who control the Iowa Senate.

“She cannot reorganize it if the code is not changed,” Hatch told reporters after addressing the commission on the topic. “She's in violation and if she doesn't change it, I'm sure there will be legal action. This is a high priority of ours and we expect her to return the division to its full complement and a full-time director soon.”

Branstad spokesman Tim Albrecht said the governor continues to support tobacco cessation efforts in order to make Iowa the healthiest state in the nation and he recommended a much-higher funding level of $5.9 million that was reduced by legislators during fiscal 2012 budget negotiations.

However, Hatch said Branstad remained silent and allowed “politics to drive the policy” when Republicans who control the Iowa House “zeroed out all funding” for tobacco prevention and control and now, he added, the governor is trying to use the outcome of hard-fought negotiations within the split-control Legislature as “an excuse to destroy” prevention programs that have worked for a decade.

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