Word: tobacco
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...Family and now a renowned movie director. But the speech, before the American Heart Association, is only tangentially about Reiner's childhood. More directly, he is imploring his listeners to help get out the vote for Proposition 10, a California ballot initiative that would tax tobacco to fund programs for preschoolers. "Politicians like to say children are the future," Reiner says, "but what have they done for them? Everyone knows that the first three years of life is when the brain develops. We must give every child a good start...
Reiner, 51, is author and chief promoter of one of the more ambitious pieces of social legislation ever crafted on a state level. Picking up where the U.S. Congress left off when a proposed $368 billion federal tobacco lawsuit settlement was killed in June, Prop 10 would add a 50[cent] tax to each pack of cigarettes sold in California. The money, up to $700 million a year, would be channeled into antitobacco programs and early-childhood health and education. The higher prices would result in an estimated 25% drop in smoking--and consequent savings in the state...
...tobacco companies, fearing that Prop 10 could set a precedent for other states, have mobilized a Committee Against Unfair Taxes, which is expected to spend more than $20 million for television ads and direct mail. "You know it's easy to vote against tobacco," coos a comely blond from her suburban kitchen in one TV spot. "But if you're against higher taxes and bigger bureaucracy, vote no on Prop 10." Last week, tobacco companies were busy faxing around an endorsement from the Los Angeles Times' political columnist. "So Big Brother, what's next?" wrote George Skelton. "A surtax...
...Four years ago, encouraged by Tipper Gore, he began an intensive study of child-development policy. After consulting with experts, he launched his "I Am Your Child" foundation, produced a TV special on early brain development and promoted a federal bill that would have directed $11 billion of the tobacco settlement to children's programs. Now he trudges from Rotary Clubs and newspaper editorial boards to the sets of Jay Leno and Roseanne promoting his ballot initiative. "I feel like the cavalry coming to the rescue," says Reiner. "The tobacco industry can buy politicians, but our hope is they...
...Would the government have an ever greater incentive to control market fluctuations, if not the market itself? Could the government invest in a tobacco company? What about a company that was a toxic polluter a decade ago?" Levitt asked. "More broadly, assuming the government invests in individual equities as opposed to market indexes, would it be able to vote its shares...