Tobacco-tax opponents have launched a new television ad attacking Proposition 29, which would impose an additional $1-per-pack tax on cigarettes to pay for research on cancer and tobacco-related diseases. Below is the text of the ad and analysis by The Bee's Kevin Yamamura.

TEXT

Dr. La Donna Porter: I'm against smoking, so I thought Prop. 29 was a good idea.

Then I read it. It raises $735 million in tobacco taxes, but not one penny goes to new funding for cancer treatment.

Instead, it creates a huge new research bureaucracy with no accountability run by political appointees who can spend our tax dollars in other states.

Narrator: That's why doctors, taxpayers and small business say no on 29.

ANALYSIS

It is true that Proposition 29 does not directly fund treatment for regular patients. It is designed to find new cures, as well as prevent people from smoking to reduce demand for future treatment. If direct treatment is funded, it is for patients in clinical trials.

The initiative creates a new nine-member "committee" to oversee spending and hire employees. The panel includes chancellors at University of California schools that conduct biomedical research, as well as appointees selected by the governor and state public health officer. The initiative restricts the Legislature's ability to change the program.

The initiative states that its purpose is to fund California-based activities, but it is true there is no explicit prohibition on funding research outside the state.

Porter, a physician at San Joaquin General Hospital, previously appeared in an ad against a 2006 tobacco tax initiative that would have raised funds for research and health care.

In 2005, she was a spokesperson for a pharmaceutical-backed initiative allowing drugmakers to provide voluntary discounts to low-income residents rather than mandatory ones.

The No on 29 campaign says Porter was not paid for the latest ad. She did not return requests for comment.

Featuring Porter in a white lab coat and stating that doctors oppose the initiative is misleading. Some of the state's largest physician groups, including the California Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics, California, support Proposition 29.

Anti-tax groups and big-business organizations oppose the initiative. As for small businesses, a long list of cigarette retailers -- mini marts and gas stations -- have banded together in opposition. However, the opposition campaign is almost exclusively funded by tobacco firms Philip Morris USA and R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., which have contributed $23 million so far.

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