Penny-wise and pound-foolish. That’s how I feel about the Wisconsin Legislature’s 55 percent reduction in the state’s anti-tobacco program this summer.

As our economy stalls we all have had to tighten our financial belts, including state government. But cutting a program that for each dollar invested saves more than $3.60 in health care costs is not only short-sighted, it’s a tragedy in lives lost.

Each year, approximately 8,000 parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles, brothers and sisters in Wisconsin die from tobacco-related diseases such as cancer or lung and heart disease.

And for every person whose life is cut short due to tobacco, there are dozens of loved ones who are left to wonder what life would have been like had life lasted a bit longer.

Not only do tobacco prevention programs save and extend lives, they also save taxpayer dollars. Health care costs to treat smoking-related diseases cost our state $2.02 billion annually.

An ounce of prevention pays huge dividends, both in terms of lives and money saved. What better reasons could there be to support such a program?

Bill Erickson