Clarion-Ledger from Jackson, Mississippi • Page 69

erspective LEGISLATURE COLUMNS EDITORIALS THE CLARION-LEDGER II JACKSON, MISSISSIPPI CLARIONLEDGER.COM ID, Looking at a gubernatorial or senatorial bid, is Mike Moore. o) Trickle' streaming down on taxpayers With the Legislature already mired in a budget crisis, a Medicaid crisis, a public education funding crisis and other assorted sub-crises related to the fact that 1 of the state is spending more than it's taking in, prudent taxpayers should put their hands over their wallets and purses. Why? Because if history is any Sid Salter 'H State campaign finance records indicate that many of those same 50 attorney enriched by the tobacco lawsuits have become the chief political financiers of the Mississippi Democratic Party. Musgrove has been a prime beneficiary of campaign contributions from trial lawyers in general and tobacco settlement lawyers specifically. Moore's tobacco lawsuit initiative was hailed as visionary in that the suit was filed to recover Medicaid dollars spent to treat smoking related illnesses.

It created the state's Health Care Trust Fund as a permanent source of funding for health care. More than any other offshoot of Mississippi's settlement that grinds Moore's detractors is the non-profit Partnership for a Healthy Mississippi. The Partnership is funded annually by $20 million earmarked from the settlement by the Jackson County judge who approved it. The program invests in more than 60 individual health-related programs statewide. State Sen.

Mike Chaney, R-Vicksburg, is a strong crit ET ml 1 Vlkss ivy 1 Cw'-MJnSiA Viiii niimliiM Controversial AG is considering a future race for higher office By Sid Salter Clarion-Ledger Perspective Edttor So convincing in the role of Mississippi's attorney general is Mike Moore that he once played himself in a bit part in the Oscar-nominated 1999 film The Insiders. For Moore, the public stage is not unfamiliar or uncomfortable. Over the last two decades, Mississippians have become accustomed to seeing him there and in a leading role. A $4. 1 billion tobacco law-suit for Mississippi that helped dictate national tobacco policies? Moore's in the White House Rose Garden making the announcement.

Ayers education lawsuit settlement? Moore high-fives administrators at the announcement. School milk money bid rigging? Moore put the cow back in the barn. Initiative-and-referen-dum rights for voters? Moore's their legal huckleberry. Prison reforms? Public corruption cases? Legislative ethics misconduct cases? Moore was center stage. This week, the lifetime Democrat was on Capitol Hill facing barbs from the national press and protests from within his own party in a spirited, combative defense of Bush administration judicial nominee U.S.

District Judge Charles Pickering, Sr. Newspaper headlines. Television face time. As a result depending on the source of the opinion Moore is alternately the state's best-liked or most disliked political figure. Moore confirmed last week that he has higher political ambitions: "I'm seriously considering running for governor." He made similar statements in 1998, only to back out of the 1999 gubernatorial campaign by saying his heart wasn't in that race.

Moore's "fire in the belly" seems to be burning brighter these days, despite the prospect of taking on incumbent Democratic Gov. Ronnie Musgrove in what would be a bloody primary. "There is a void of leadership in the governor's office today that needs to be addressed by me or someone," Moore said. "I have a good working relationship with the Legislature. The present governor does not.

It's something I had to mature into." But Moore is more circumspect on the question of making a bid for the U.S. Senate in 2006. "I've looked at it for a long time, ever since going to see John Stennis when I was a kid," he said. "That's a position from which I think I could be effective. Right now, I'm just concentrating 1 4-year veteran Attorney General Mike Moore, 49, a Demo- crat from Pascagoula, has confirmed recent reports that he Brian Albert BroomTheClarion-Ledger is considering a run for governor in 2003 but said he is also eyeing a possible U.S.

Senate bid in 2006. JAIL LPt ntt A 1 it lead the state's tobacco lawsuit several years after hiring Scruggs to lead the state's product liability lawsuits against 27 asbestos manufacturers. Scruggs realized $2.4 million in legal fees from the asbestos cases later using those proceeds in part to finance the mammoth tobacco litigation. smoking next December. Good for business "The effect is to show restaurants that their business will actually increase when they do a complete smoke-free policy," Mayo said.

Mike Cashion, executive director of the Mississippi Restaurant Association, opposed the smoking ban bill. But, he said, the association encourages customers to let restaurateurs know when there is a problem with smoking. He said "direct one-on-one communication" is effective. guide, Congress and the Legislature continue to try to push the tax burden down to the local level The Washington, D.C.-based Tax Foundation a non-partisan, non-profit tax monitoring organization ranks Mississippi 43rd in the nation in total federal, state and local tax burden. The tax burden as a percentage of income is 31.7 percent.

Tax growth is 4th But the Tax Foundation ranks Mississippi 10th in the nation in state and local tax burden. As a percentage of income, the state and local burden is 10.8 percent Between 1989-99, the foundation ranks Mississippi's tax growth at 4.83 percent or fourth in the nation. The group ranked Mississippi 31st in state tax collections per capita, but 11th in terms of collections on a per capita income basis. The most telling statistic from the Tax Foundation study is the average growth rate of state per capita property tax collections. From 1987-97, Mississippi leads the nation with 50.1 percent growth, with adjustments for inflation.

Local property taxes grew at a rate of 3.7 percent. What's the message from these numbers? In terms of total tax burden(federal, state and local) Mississippi's rank of 43rd more closely mirrors the state's 47th rank in per capita income. But in terms of property taxes, Mississippi's current rank of 10th is far out of proportion with that income ranking. When Congress foists unfunded mandates on the state legislatures and those legislatures turn around and do the same thing to county governments, the result particularly in Mississippi is inflated property tax rates. Now paying the 10th highest property tax rates per capita in the nation, Mississippians can't afford another "trickle-down" property tax increase as a cure to the state's current fiscal woes because one's already on tap.

Reappraisal woes The State Tax Commission has ordered all Mississippi counties to reappraise all property by mid-2002. Many counties have not conducted a comprehensive property reappraisal since the early 1980s. Madison County Tax Assessor Gerald Barber, chairman of the Mississippi Tax Assessors and Collectors Association, told The Oxford Eagle in December that reappraisal was accounting for a 3 1 percent average increase in appraised values. Regardless of any actions of the Legislature in terms of the state's overall financial problems, property taxes statewide will probably increase based on property reappraisal The temptation to raise county, municipal and school district millage to the maximum allowed under the cap will be strong. With the Legislature rejecting the local option sales tax for cities, the property tax is the only place counties and cities have left to go to make up for funds cut from local schools and for shortfalls in sales tax collections in a recession.

That leaves lawmakers with either spending cuts or new revenue sources like the always-sacrosanct corporate income tax as the only real items left on the fiscal menu. Born April 3, 1952 in Jackson, eldest of five children. Graduate of Our Lady of Victory High School in Pascagoula, Gulf Coast Community College, University of Mississippi and the UM School of Law. Assistant district attorney, 19th Judicial District (George, Greene and Jackson counties). Elected district attorney, 19th Judicial District, in 1979 at the age of 26 making him the state's youngest elected official.

Served from 1980-1988. Elected attorney general in 1987. Served from 1988-present. Defeated in Oct. 3, 1989, special election to fill the seat of the late 5th District U.S.

Rep. Larkin Smith, who was killed in a plane crash. Moore ran third behind Republican Tom Anderson and eventual Congressman Gene Taylor, another Democrat. White-collar crime fighting efforts earn Moore a nod as one of the "Ten Outstanding Young Americans for 1 992" from the U.S. Junior Chamber of Commerce.

Filed the first Medicaid reimbursement lawsuit in 1 994 against 1 3 tobacco companies that led to a $4. 1 billion settlement for the state. Wins Wyman Award as the nation's top state attorney general. Wins National Law Journals "Lawyer of the Year." Governing magazine names Moore "Public Official of the Year" in 1998. Moore and his wife, Tisha, are the parents of a son, Kyle, 14.

They attend St. Richard's Catholic Church in Jackson. ic of Moore's handling of the anti-tobacco funds. "Many people in this state see this Chaney as Mike Moore's private campaign fund and there has been little to no accountability of the spending of millions of dollars that belongs to the taxpayers," Chaney said. "In any campaign, he'll have to answer for that." Chaney says that Moore is prohibited by statute and the state Constitution from "appropriating state funds." "Only the Legislature can appropriate the people's money," he said.

"The tobacco settlement all of it belongs to the taxpayers." Moore disagrees. "The courts approved what we're doing and it's the top program of its kind in the country," he said. "We have oversight and audits from a board that includes folks outside this office in the public and private sec-, tor. The program works and it's proven." Supporters of the pro gram point to the Partnerships' smoking cessation and prevention successes that lead the nation. Clarke Recent sur vey data from Mississippi State University indicated the program had accounted for a 34 percent reduction in smoking among eighth graders.

State Rep. Alyce G. Clarke, D-Jackson, said Moore had done "an excellent job in getting the anti-smoking message out." for Lent? "We would welcome any customer feedback and would pass it along to the specific restaurant," Cash-ion said. Polls increasingly show that the public supports restrictions on smoking. Restaurant owners would be wise to "give up" smoking during Lent next year.

They can be assured that their non-smoking customers would like to give up second-hand smoke. Contact Editorial Director David Hampton at 601-961-7240; e-mail, dhampton jackson.gannett.com. 3 fciA' ijjli File photoThe Clarion-Ledger Gulf Coast in the late 1 970s a message to drug dealers. legitimate private business. He was unsuccessful.

During the controversy, Fordice frequently referred to the veteran state official as "Flashbulb Moore." Even Pascagoula attorney Richard "Dickie" I I 4 Scruggs Scruggs Moore's top campaign contributor and the man Moore hired to lead the tobacco lawsuit once joked that the most dangerous place to stand "was between Moore and a camera." Moore's decision to give Scruggs his former Ole Miss law school classmate the lead position in the decided As young district attorney on the and early 1980s, Moore posted on doing the job I was elected to do. If you do that, the politics will take care of itself." Whether seeking higher office or re-election, Moore draws intense scrutiny from friends and foes alike. The state's 1994 lawsuit against Big Tobacco drew the most attention. Moore in 1998 described the tobacco industry in this way: "The most evil and corrupt corporate animal has ever been created in this country." Not everyone was impressed. Former Gov.

Kirk Fordice sued to try to stop Moore from going forward with the tobacco lawsuit, which the former governor considered a government assault on a month that would have banned smoking in most public places, including restaurants. Now he is personally David Hampton What if restaurants tobacco case has easily been the most second-guessed decision of the attorney general's political career. Scruggs and 50 private attorneys who worked on the case split $1.4 billion in legal fees. Scruggs' law firm was awarded $844 million in legal fees for work in Mississippi, Texas and Florida. Moore hired Scruggs to to give up smoke are well established.

"They are not only injuring themselves, but are injuring others," he said. Mayo will hold a news Mayo conference on March 20 to announce the details of his plan and how to get involved (It's on his personal Web site at gmi.net-cm-rhous). He is organizing petition drives in every county and will present the names to the Mississippi Restaurant Association j-w-his is tne period of I Lent, the 40 days from Ash Wednesday to Easter. It is a time of reflection and penitence for Christians in preparation for Easter. People "give up" something, or maybe take on some sacrificial practice.

While it is a personal, reflective religious observance, maybe it would be a good time for some secular institutions to give up something, as well. That is state Rep. John Mayo's idea when it comes to smoking and restaurants. Mayo, a Clarksdale legislator, watched a bill die last rights of businesses. Customers decide "They said that private business ought to decide policy in the private sector, that customers should determine what the public policy is, not the government," Mayo said.

"OK, I'm going to try and put together a coalition of customers to let customers decide the public policy." Mayo is organizing a statewide "Smoke Free for Lent 2003" petition drive. He is not an anti-smoking crusader, per se, but says the dangers of second-hand A organizing Mississippians to encourage restaurants to "give up" allowing any smoking in their restaurants for 40 days during the lenten period of 2003. He was prompted by the arguments of the opponents of the bill, who saw the ban as an infringement on the i Contact Perspective Editor Sid Salter at (601) 961-7084 or e-mail him at.