Sen. Graves: “My opinion is that the settlement funds constitute total state revenue under the terms of the Hancock Amendment and therefore would be refundable to taxpayers. This legal question will ultimately be decided by the courts or the voters of Missouri.”
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by State Sen. Sam Graves (R-Tarkio)
The Missouri Senate has given preliminary approval to Senate Bill 288, which creates the Missouri Settlement Trust Fund, involving the state’s $6.7 billion national settlement with tobacco companies.
Under provision of the bill, which carries three amendments that I supported, the fund would be a depository separate from general revenue for any payments received under the tobacco settlement. The fund would hold the deposits until legal questions about the tobacco settlement are resolved.
Other terms of the legislation specify that any deposits in the fund, or interest received from deposits, or any movement of money from the fund, would be made known to taxpayers by all standard methods and through the Internet.
We were successful in getting three amendments on the bill that will greatly protect the taxpayer from misuse of this money. The first amendment requires that attorney’s fees must be approved by the legislature. There has been a great deal of controversy in this area. The Attorney General brokered deals with trial attorneys who stand to receive millions of dollars for work that was done by other lawyers before them. This amendment will allow the General Assembly to scrutinize payments made to these lawyers.
The next amendment creates additional steps and hurdles before any money could be withdrawn or spent from the fund. This is very important to protect us from lawmakers feeding from the public trough.
The third amendment requires any similar settlements in the future to be deposited in the fund. This also protects us from future settlements being deposited into the General Revenue fund and spent at the discretion of the lawmakers.
My opinion is that the settlement funds constitute total state revenue under the terms of the Hancock Amendment and therefore would be refundable to taxpayers. This legal question will ultimately be decided by the courts or the voters of Missouri.
Other bills that passed this week deal with prison sentences, chemical dependency, and sales tax on college textbooks.