44TH LEGISLATURE - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - FIRST SESSION, 1999

REQUESTING THE INTERIM LEGISLATIVE HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES COMMITTEE TO DEVELOP EXPENDITURE RECOMMENDATIONS FOR THE TOBACCO SETTLEMENT PAYMENTS RECEIVED BY NEW MEXICO.

WHEREAS, New Mexico expects to receive approximately one billion, two hundred million dollars ($1,200,000,000) by the year 2025 from the tobacco settlement entered into November 23, 1998; and

WHEREAS, this money is being given to states in a settlement from the various tobacco manufacturers as reimbursement for public money expended, past, present and future, in treating various health problems, including those linked to smoking; and

WHEREAS, the interim legislative health and human services committee, in the interim preceding this first session of the forty-fourth legislature, received approximately fifty million dollars ($50,000,000) in requests for various health and social services programs, and that it annually is requested to introduce legislation funding millions of dollars in health care needs; and

WHEREAS, it is consistent and appropriate that expenditures of these tobacco settlement funds be presented through the interim legislative health and human services committee that has, since its creation ten years ago in 1989, heard testimony on the health and social service needs of the entire state;

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE SENATE OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO that the interim legislative health and human services committee include as a major portion of its interim activity hearings on appropriate expenditures of money received through the tobacco settlement entered into November 23, 1998 by the state of New Mexico; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the interim legislative health and human services committee make specific recommendations to the second session of the forty-fourth and subsequent legislatures for expenditures of the money received as a result of the tobacco settlement entered into November 23, 1998; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that copies of this memorial be sent to the New Mexico legislative council and the interim legislative health and human services committee.