Tobacco-cash Means Millions for Treatment

Tobacco-cash plan OK'd

Senators approved diverting $34 million from tobacco-settlement money Tuesday into health-care programs and the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center.

On a 25-10 vote, the Senate passed SB97 by Senate President Joan Fitz-Gerald, D-Jefferson County, which would give 49 percent of the money to CU. Health-care programs - including rural health care, mental-health and drug-and-alcohol counseling for inmates, and immunization programs - would divide the rest.

Sen. Paula Sandoval, D-Denver, said she voted against the bill because nearly half the money would go to higher education rather than health care.

"There just is so much need, and I really feel strongly that those dollars could be better spent on the needy and disabled," she said.