“Shall be held inviolate.”

Some pretty serious words there.

When the Legislature decided to accept the cash negotiated in former Attorney General Mike Moore’s settlement with the group of cigarette-makers who have come to be known as Big Tobacco, Mississippi was riding a wave of prosperity.

The year was 1997. The national economy was in such good shape President Bill Clinton was saying the federal government would soon stop spending more than it received. In Mississippi, Gov. Kirk Fordice was crediting his businesslike approach for double-digit percentage increases in state revenue, although a new industry, casino gambling, had a lot to do with it, too.

Charlie Mitchell is executive editor of The Vicksburg Post. Write to him at Box 821668, Vicksburg, MS 39182, or e-mail.

“Surplus” was used in as many headlines as “shortfall” is these days.

Against that rosy backdrop, lawmakers pledged every penny of the tobacco settlement — except legal fees and an annual allocation for tobacco cessation programs — would “be held inviolate” in something called the Health Care Trust Fund.

After an initial payment of $170,000 million, Big Tobacco promised to pay up to $10 billion in annual installments.

For one brief shining moment, it seemed that Mississippi’s persistent inability to provide health care services to the poor was over.

The “inviolate” trust was to be invested. Only earnings from the settlement money would be spent. With a return on investment of 10 percent, which wasn’t unthinkable 12 years ago, (Mississippi’s capital gains would be tax-free), the trust could eventually yield $1 billion a year.

Back then the federal treasury was putting up about 75 cents for each 25 cents Mississippi put up for Medi-

caid — the federal-state program for poor people. So the $1 billion could parlay to $4 billion for sick folks who couldn’t pay their bills, a big chunk because at the time total health spending in Mississippi was running about $9 billion. Man, “hospital food” could be lobster and créme brulé.

The tobacco dream, however, went down in flames.

Governments are just not good savers.

Social Security is an example. When it was started, the idea was that Uncle Sam would be the banker, holding workers’ money until they retired and sending it back in monthly payments. Today, deductions taken from workers’ paychecks go straight to pay beneficiaries. There is no real reserve.

Back in the 1980s, former Gov. William Winter wanted to hold money from a new tax in an Education Trust Fund and create improved schools. That didn’t work either.

Big Tobacco has kept its end of the bargain. The second check was for $110 million, then $200 million the next, followed by $211 million and then $218 million. The money was being invested and in those first five years raised another $90 million or so.

But also by 2002, the economic winds had shifted.

Lawmakers felt compelled to amend “shall be held inviolate” to “shall be held inviolate unless we need the money for something else.”

Instead of just spending the trust’s earnings, they took a larger bite from that year’s payments. And the years since? Well, pretty much the same story.

The truth is that Mississippi did manage its tobacco money better than many other states managed theirs. It is easy to be cynical because almost every bite taken from the “inviolate” apple was followed by a promise to unbite it. To most folks’ ears, promising to put back something you promised not to touch in the first place rings rather hollow.

In his State of the State speech last week, Haley Barbour said it’s time to end the charade. “Since I have been governor, it has become clear to me this trust fund – the Health Care Trust Fund, as it is officially known – is not and never will be held in trust in the true sense of the word,” Barbour said. “It will never build up since the interest or earnings are not large enough to be material in future budgets. So, while I didn’t propose it, if it is the will of the Legislature, I will agree to spending down the balance of the existing fund, as long as it is done on a schedule of equal payments over a period of at least four years.

Actually, Barbour, although he may not remember it, has favored invading the trust before. Fine, with him, though, if lawmakers take the rap for admitting the plan — and it was a good plan — just didn’t work out.

This state, like almost all others, is in a pinch. It appears there’s about $220 million in cash in the health trust instead of the $3 billion or more that would be there by now if it really were “inviolate.” And with the governor’s blessing, the $220 million will be spent, too. The Big Tobacco checks will keep coming each January, but will go right into the General Fund.