The Associated Press

With 3-year-old Alyna Garcia perched on his lap, Gov. Ted Kulongoski today signed legislation creating a “Healthy Kids Program” to provide health insurance for some 117,000 Oregon children who lack it.

Voters will decide in November on a proposed 84.5-cent-a-pack increase in the state cigarette tax to pay for it.

“It is unconstitutional in my opinion not to provide health care for children,” Kulongoski told a gathering of legislators, health care professionals and volunteers and others at the signing ceremony at Legacy Emanuel Hospital’s Children’s Garden.

He said it is an issue that cannot wait.

Kulongoski described uninsured children as a part of the population not often seen except in emergency rooms.

Dr. Paul Horowitz, a pediatrician at Legacy Emanuel, said he routinely sees children who could have had a better start in life if they had had access to health care and said Oregon could be a national model.

Measure 50, which will appear on the Nov. 6 ballot, is a proposed constitutional amendment that would add 84.5 cents in tax for each pack, raising the total state tax to $2.02 a pack, among the nation’s highest.

The governor predicted a vigorous campaign by the tobacco industry opposing the measure, similar to ones in California and Missouri.

“Big tobacco may not be excited about the method for funding the program,” he said. “I see it as a no-brainer.”

Salem lobbyist Mark Nelson, whose clients include the tobacco industry, said a decision is expected soon as to how to proceed.

“If they decide to oppose it they’ll form a political action committee (PAC) and file with the secretary of state,” he said today.

He said objections beyond the proposed increase include how funds are allocated and the fact that it would be in the constitution.

“I don’t know of any time in the country we’ve had a tax on a single product and put it in the constitution,” he said.

http://blog.oregonlive.com/breakingnews/2007/08/governor_signs_healthy_kids_la.html

Posted on August 9, 2007 | Return to the NEWS Archive