A member raised a question about the tobacco settlement. I thought members may be
interested in research done by the League late last year on this subject. We will
keep you posted if anything new arises.
Frances Medema
Staff Analyst
League of California Cities
1400 K Street Suite 400
Sacramento, CA 95814
phone: 916/658-8218
fax: 916/658-8240
email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Frances:
Here is the information you requested, plus an attachment, regarding the tobacco
settlement. Please share it with CSMFO folks as appropriate.
The tobacco settlement which several people have commented on is the result of
lawsuits between a number of states, organizations and in California, several counties
and three large cities. In Californnia, the revenue received is to be divided 50% for
the state and 50% for all counties and 4 cities (LA, SF, San Jose and San Diego).
As the attached memo states, existing law in California restricts the types of cities
who can undertake independent legal actiion for unfair business practices. Thus, only
four cities were eligible to participate in the lawsuit.
The tobacco settlement was the subject of an Annual Conference Reesolution in 1999.
The final version of the resolution calls on the League to attempt to secure a portion
of the state's share of the tobacco settlement. We will not be going after the
counties' share, because of legal and political difficulties such an exercise would
entail. We are working with Assembly Member Dean Flores's office to pursue this
through the budget process. It was his preference to use this approach rather than a
separate bill. As more information about this becomes available, we will inform
cities.
I encourage folks to read the memo from JoAnne and me that is attached. We prepared
it at Chris McKenzie's request as background for the policy committee discussions on
the Annual Conference Resolution.
Yvonne
tobaco1.doc
