Editorial: Plan offers backup to tobacco funding

Wednesday, April 9, 2003 | 9:04 a.m.

Although only four years have passed since they began, Millennium Scholarships are ingrained in the minds of Nevada high schools students. The scholarships provide financial assistance to qualified students going on to college within the state. The funding source, however, has become worrisome. The money comes from the state's share of the 1998 tobacco settlement, about $40 million a year for 20 more years. This money also finances another popular state program, one that helps qualified senior citizens buy prescription drugs.

State Treasurer Brian Krolicki is warning that tobacco companies, citing falling revenues, appear ready to default on their payments or at least slash them. The Legislature should consider his recommendation to sell half of the tobacco companies' annual payments, once the market improves, to investors. Krolicki would then invest the proceeds safely. We want to see aggressive legal pursuit of our full share. But Krolicki's plan would be insurance against big tobacco finding a way to burn a small state.

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