USA

WARNING: This site deals only with the corporate corruption of science, and makes no inference about the motives or activities of individuals involved.
    There are many reasons why individuals become embroiled in corporate corruption activities - from political zealotry to over-enthusiastic activism; from gullibility to greed.
    Please read the OVERVIEW carefully, and make up your own mind.

OPINION ONLY

Robert 'Morris' Coats was a cash-for-comment academic who worked for the tobacco industry, mainly by doing pre-designed-outcome research and writing op-ed articles on a commission basis to oppose various legislative measures being introduced into Congress.

Tobacco lobbyist James Savarese and Professor Robert Tollison of George Mason University had collaborated in the 1980s to provide the tobacco industry, through the Tobacco Institute, with networks of academics in various disciplines who would be willing to write and sprout propaganda material ... always provided the payments for these services were not directly tracealble back to the Institute or to any of the cigarette companies.

The idea was simply that these academic 'sleepers' would be available on a cash-for-services basis when needed to counter attempts to increase excise taxes or to ban public smoking ... or just to appear as 'independent experts' at Congressional hearings and promote the industry causes.

Economist were by far the most useful of the acolyte academics because the distinction between economics and politics was never clear: so support of the cigarette companies could always be portrayed as support for free-market economics including the rights of individuals to make public choices ... small government ... or even the first Amendment to the Constitution.

The economist working for Savarese, always claim to be 'independent' 'professionals' and ' academics', and they exploited the fact that they came from some credible university. They never revealed the source of their funding in their op-eds or letters-to-the-editor.

If ever put under cross-examination, they must be able to claim (with weasel-word imprecision) that they had "never received a penny from the tobacco industry". Therefore all payments were laundered, either through tobacco industry lawyers (usually Covington & Burling),) the principle organisers James Savarese & Associates, or through Bob Tollison's Center for the Study of Public Choice at George Mason University.

The aim was to have, in each State, at least

• one academic economist,
  
• one academic lawyer, and
  
• one academic from a business management, business law, marketing or advertising discipline

The academics were always expected to wave their own and their university's credentials vigorously, and loudly proclaim their "independence' from any crass-commercial motives. And those who could boast of being 'non-smokers' were especially prized — since without this addiction, their non-dependent-on-tobacco status was thought to be proved beyond any doubt!

Unfortunately, it worked.

Some key documents

• Professor Morris Coats, Marshall University, Huntington, West Virginia Later he became Assistant Professor of Economics and Finance, Nicholls State University in Thibodaux.

    He was a close associate of Dr Wendell E Sweetser also of Marshall University, an older economist who worked briefly for the cash-for-comments network and with Michael M Kurth from McNeese State Uni LA.

    He is married to (Anna) Lisa Huval, a school administrator.

• B.A., Louisiana State University;

• MS Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

1955 May 27: Born in Waco Texas, educated in Thibodaux LA.

1980: PhD. Studied economics under James Buchanan at the Virginia Tech.

1983: PhD in Economics fom Virginia Tech University (Public Choice)

1983 Mar 31: Morris Coats and Wendell E Sweetser Jr begin collaborating They are both disciples of James Buchanan [also a cash-for-comment economist] at Virginia Polytechnic (Nobel Prize winner for his Public Choice concept).

1979 May: the International Committee on Smoking Issues (ICOSI) begins using economists Robert Tollison and Richard Wagner (both of Virginia Polytechnic) to write material to counter the rising tide of criticism attacking the 'social cost' of smoking — the costs that smoking imposes on the community (fires, cleaning, health, discomfort, welfare, etc)

1981 Dec 1: James Savarese & Associates, a lobby firm which works through Ogilvy & Mathher, reports to Susan Stuntz at the Tobacco Institute about their activites during November (for himself and his employee, Leslie Dawson). Savarese's consultancy specialises in coopting labor and economists, and also on projects which can be used to counter the next Surgeon General's report.

    He lists the successes his group has had in getting economists to plant op-eds on various local newspapers. This is the early stage in the formation of the cash-for-comments network:

• Prof David Saurman — op-ed on Prop 99 with San Jose Mercury News

• Prof Ryan Amacher (Clemson Uni) in The State.
• Joseph Jadlow (Oklahoma State Uni) in Tulsa Tribune.
• Todd Sandler (Iowa State Uni) in Fort Dodge Messenger.
• Robert B Ekelund (Auburn Uni) Montgomery Advertiser.
• Dwight R Lee (Washington Uni) Regulation Magazine.
• Samson Kimenyi (Uni of Mississippi) in Jackson Clarion ledger.
• David ER Gay (Uni of Arkansas) in Arkansas Democrat.

1984: Professor Wendell Sweetser (now at Marshall University, Huntington WV) and graduate student/Instructor Morris Coats [both later cash-for-comments economists] have made a study of the state excise taxation and monopoly sales of liquor for the West Virginia Tax Study Commission.


[The tobacco industry found this study noteworthy and Coats joined the economists network shortly after when he joined Sweetser at Marshall University.

    Wendell Sweetser joined a few years later (1986) , but dropped out after only a brief period.]

1985 Jan 31: A Tobacco Institute list of about sixty economists from the early cash-for-comments network has been sent to Regional Directors. It has been organise by State, and includes the names of Congressmen they wish to influence.

Attached for your information are the names of economists who have been identified by PR to assist TI on the federal cigarette excise tax issue.

    These people are also available to testify at the state level. If you feel that this type of witness can be of assistance to you on state cigarette tax issues, please contact Fred Panzer for details and arrangements

WEST VIRGINIA
  •   Professor Morris Coates,
      Marshall University, Huntington, West Virginia

[Wendell Sweetser was only recruited as back-up the following year]

1985 Feb 21: Roger Mozingo of the Tobacco Institute is sending his State and Regional Directors a list of resources available to fight against excise taxes in their states.

WEST VIRGINIA
Public Smoking Witnesses: Al Vogel (productivity); Steve Schlossberg (labor implications); Bob Klotz (enforcement) Lew Solmon (economics)

Materials: Voter survey; Economic survey; Labor assistance; Response Analysis summaries; Public Smoking topic sheets; "Some Considerations" workplace kits; "In Defense of Smokers" reprints; "The Other Sice of the Smoking Controversy" reprints; Letter writing brochures; Advertising.

Economist: Morris Coates, Marshall University, Huntington, W.Va.

Media Relations: Contacts are in place in Huntington. Contact Bill Toohey for assistance.

1986 Jan: The Tobacco Institute's Public Relations Resource Catalogue for their Regional Directors, lists documents, booklets, article, posters and people who can help them fight local public smoking ordinances and threats to raise the excise taxes on cigarettes.

    It provides a long list of economists who are willing to speak at hearings, write letters to the editor, or create op-eds for the newspapers to counter any threat to public smoking or possible increase in excise taxes.

    The Tobacco Institute offered their Regional Directors the C/Vs of all of these economists, and said

"Requests for economists should be made ASAP. Allow at least one week. PR approval needed."

• Professor Morris Coates (sic)
  Department of Economics, Marshall University, Huntington, WV

Public Smoking/Witness: Local economists are available on two-weeks notice to provide economic testimony on the public smoking issue. Those economists who have testified or prepared op-ed pieces on the economic effects of public smoking are marked accordingly. The others may be briefed on the potential cost to government of implementing smoking restrictions.

Tax witness: [He will] "explain why excise taxes are regressive and unfair to consumers and unsuitable and unreliable as a means to increase the federal revenue."

    Those economists who have testified or prepared op-ed pieces on the economic effects of public smoking are marked accordingly. The others may be briefed on the potential cost to government of implementing smoking restrictions.

1986 Apr: A bundle of information predominantly on Sick Building Syndrome [a public scare campaign amplified by the US tobacco industry] and Indoor Air Quality is being circulated by the Tobacco Institute to its Regional Directors. It contains a substantial amount of propaganda material prepared by Gray Robertson (of ACVA/HBI) for the industry attempting to lay the blame for passive smoking problems on fungii and bacteria in air-conditioning ducts.

    However, Section 1 is headed

List of sources.
Local and national experts you can call for quotes or background information.

PROFESSOR MORRIS COATS
Department of Economics,
Marshall University, Huntington, WV
[For the first time they have spelled his name correctly — but they now get the university and state wrong.]

1986 Apr 3: This is an approved copy of the letter on "New Research Proposals" that Jim Savarese sent to his long list of network economists. This letter leaves no doubt that these academic economist knew that they were being paid to protect the interests of the tobacco industry.

    The economist were also being given outline "rebuttals" developed by Tollison and Wagner to help them in writing their counter-attacks to an an Office of Technology Assessment (OTA) anti-smoking report.

I would like to thank you for all of your cooperation and diligence in handling the projects we have worked on together. I am taking this opportunity to alert you to some new research opportunities that may be available in the upcoming weeks.

As you know, the tobacco industry is exposed continuously to a barrage of attacks on economic issues. Many of these attacks involve a serious perversion of the concept of social cost. The Tobacco Institute is interested in considering research proposals which would establish a much more realistic examination of the social cost issue as it relates to the smoking issue.

I have attached a report prepared by the staff of the Office of Technology Assessment which is representative of the kind of "research" being put forth by anti-tobacco activists. I have also included the rebuttals developed by Bob Tollison and Richard Wagner to the OTA report.

The Institute would like to examine proposals for research that test, in a quantitative way, a number of propositions on the relevant cost considerations that apply to the smoking issue.

1986 Apr 28: In a quick reply to Savarese's request for research proposals to counter the anti-smoker's 'Social Cost' arguments, Michael Kurth (McNeese State University, LA) and Morris Coats (now at Nicholls State Uni) put in a joint proposal. [Letter by Kurth]

If approved, the research would be done by myself and Dr Morrls Coats, Assistant Professor at Nicholls State University. Dr Coats and I both studied under Robert Tollison and Richard Wagner at Virginia Tech and we are familiar with the issues and methodology of the project.
[And with the industries they work for.]

    The research could be done this summer using the modern research facilities of McNeese State University. Dr Coats would devote his full attention to the project; I would work half-time with Dr Coats while teaching one summer course for McNeese. The cost would be $10,400: two-ninth's salary for Dr Coats ($6,000) and one-ninth's salary for myself ($4,000).

• "It is not clear that the OTA has calculated 'social cost' properly.
• Taxes and restrictions may have already internalized the external costs associated with smoking.

Some Tobacco Institute critics have scrawled defamatory comments on their proposal: — "A very controversial and questionable estimate." — "Can't measure producers' and consumers suplus acc. because models are inaccurate." — "Can't get useful results from research outlined."

1986 May: A bundle of 72 pages of information is being circulated by the Tobacco Institute to its Regional Directors. The data is predominantly on the tobacco-industry beat-up known as Sick Building Syndrome and on the general problems of Indoor Air Quality [all down-playing the effects of smoking in confined spaces]

    Section 1 is headed

List of sources. Local and national experts you can call for quotes or background information. It promotes the services of three specialist lobbyists

• Lewis Solmon - an academic who discounts problems of workplace smoking
• Al Vogel - who claims to be an expert in public attitudes to smoking
• Mike Forscey, a labor lawyer/lobbyist who helped the tobacco industry keep the union movement on-side.

1986 May 16: Jim Savarese and Bob Tollison have reviewed the "Social Cost' (OTA) research proposals received and they suggest to the Tobacco Institute those that "Merit Consideration for Funding:"

Although these can be improved in some regards to ensure they are most useful to the industry, three proposals seem to have a good deal of merit.

1. "Is Absenteeism Related to Smoking? An Empirical Study" by Robert Ekelund, Richard Ault, and John Jackson. This is a solid, well thought out proposal. I think they could show that smokers are not more absent from work, other things equal.
2. "The Relevance of Consumption Benefits from Smoking: An Empirical Assessment" by Dwight R. Lee and Phillip A. Cartwright. This is a good proposal to estimate the benefits of smoking, which, strangely enough, has never been done. This research will be quite useful.
3. "Employment Effects of Smoking Bans in Public Accommodations" by CM. Lindsay and M. T. Maloney. This is an interesting proposal about smoking bans and the impact on restaurants.

• "Improving the Accuracy of the Assessment of Social Cost Associated with Smoking" by Barry W. Poulson.

1986 Oct 3: The Tobacco Institute is still circulting to its State Directors an old list, urging them to contact their local economists.

Attached is a list of economists with their specialty areas and office phone numbers. They have been identified in several states by J. Savarese as available and hopefully capable to testify in our behalf or aid in our defense against proposed state or local legislation, from an economic aspect.

    Some phone numbers were not immediately available, but they can be obtained by phoning the university indicated. As indicated, I do not have any information at present on a few of these economists.

1986 Oct 3: The State Directors for the Tobacco Institute have been reviewing all economics network witnesses in their territories, and culling those who are not actively participating. The Washington DC office is now circulating to its State Directors a list of the economists available who...

"...have been identified in several states by J. Savarese as available and hopefully capable to testify in our behalf, or aid in our defense against proposed state of local legislation, from an economic aspect.

WEST VIRGINIA
Professor Morris Coates
    Marshall University, Huntington, West Virginia
    [No specialization listed]

1986 Dec 11: James Savarese sends Fred Panzer at the Tobacco Institute a summary of the activities of his network of economists.
    The Tobacco Institute also now wants to know the details of those who have been recruited:

Dear Fred,

    I have attached a list of all the economists we have used along with the projects they have worked on in behalf of the Tobacco Institute.

    Let me know if you have any questions.

• GSA = General (Government) Services Administration.
• 'Ways & Means' = Congressional committee on finances
• ALEC = American Legislative Exchange Council (a formalised way for big business to directly influence Congressional and State politicians)
• Chase Econometrics = A company that did economic impact studies for the tobacco industry in various locations to 'prove' that smoking bans would destroy local economies.
  
      The references for West Virginia was now:

West Virginia [ Region VI ]

Professor Wendell E. Sweetser

Department of Economics, Marshall University, Huntington, West Virginia 25701

Services rendered:
• original excise tax op-ed

1987 Jan 6: A James Savarese memo to Fred Panzer at the Tobacco Institute.

In-order to keep this project straight with respect to the economist list, we were specifically assigned to go back to all 42 names on the original list to check to see if the economists were still interested in working for us, still in the same state, and available to meet with representatives from state activities.

    We have 34 who fit this criteria and have been contacted. The list is attached.

    The states that we once had that are currently missing are Arizona, Maryland, Massachusetts, Nebraska, New Jersey, Vermont, West Virginia, and Wyoming.

• Arizona, Professor Roger D Faith of Arizona State Uni
• Maryland, Professor David Laband, University of Maryland
• Massachusetts, Professor Lee Alston, William College, Williamstown
• Nebraska, Professor Delores Martin, University of Nebraska
• New Jersey, Professor Michael Crew, Rutgers University
• Vermont, Professor Celeste Gaspari, Univesity of Vermont
• West Virginia, Professor Morris Coates, Marshall University
• Wyoming, Professor Todd Sandler, University of Wyoming.

October 1986 list
January 1987 list

1987 Mar 17-19: Coats is listed as one of the network speakers at The Annual Meetings of the Public Choice Society (effectively run by Tollison and Buchanan at GMU) held at the Holiday Inn Hotel, Orlando, Florida.

    Coats has joined forces with another cash-for-comment network economist, Thomas Dalton, to present a paper:

Morris Coats (Nicholls State U.) and Thomas Dalton (Southern U., New Orleans) Vote Shares and Inalienable Entry Barriers in the Age of Russell, Disraeli, and Gladstone

Cross Border Smuggling

The Tobacco Institute has drafted of a short article and press release "A Cigarette Tax Increase Would Be Harmful to West Virginia." It has all been written in the third-person, quoting Wendell Sweetser as saying that West Virginia retailers would "feel the sting of a $38 million decline in retail sales". According to economist Wendell Sweetser of Marshall University (Huntington; WV) , a 10-cent cigarette tax increase in West Virginia would be a commercial boon to bordering states. The West Virginia economist estimates that the tax increase would trigger an annual $38 million loss in sales of cigarettes and sundry products in the Mountianeer state.     The beneficiaries would be the states on West Virginia's border. A 10 cent tax increase would raise West Virginia's cigarette tax above that of any bordering state. Savings would range from 90 cents a carton in Ohio and Pennsylvania to $2.40 on the Kentucky and Virginia borders.     The Marshall University economist estimates that cigarette sales in West Virginia will fall by approximately 9%. According to Sweetser,"with over 48% of West Virginia's population in border counties, most of the West Virginia sales reduction will simply end up in the cash registers of retailers in bordering states."     In fact, at the time this was written, Sweetser had not seen the draft statement. The Tobacco Institute found this line of argument so convincing that they put the same words into the mouth of Morris Coats not long after.

1990: Witness List [attached to 1993 June 1 Tobacco Institute list of "Witness/Expert Appearances — Scientific/Legal/Spokespersons."]
    Tom Lauria, Mike Buckley, Simon Turner, Gio Gori, Bill Wordham, Gray Robertson, Peter Binnie (Now HBI), Larry Holcomb, John Fox, Rich Silverman, Walter Merryman, David Remes, Frank Powell, Melinda Sidak, Rudy Cole, Larry Halfen. Binnie appears to be concentrating on airports (not aircraft)']

    Attached 1991 Witness List which includes, Brennan Dawson, Jeff Seckler, Jim Goold, Joe Pedelty, Jolly Ann Davidson, Dick Wagner, Bernadette Davidson, Walt Decker

    And 1990 Witness List (page 35) includes Bill Orzechowski, Mike Davis, Morris Coats,

    Also document has attached the 1989 witness list with (in addition to above)
    Dwight Lee, David Weeks, Alan Kassman, Bob Tollison, Richard Wagner, Jack Peterson, "Bestype Consulting", Dennis Vaughn,

    And 1988 List (Most of above) + A Katzenstein, David Brenton (focus on airlines)

1990 Jan: This is the Tobacco Institute's long planning document for the Public Relations Division in 1990. It has extensive details of their Strategies, Goals and Tactics. [It also includes an attachment dated May 23 1990.]

For the excise tax and "social cost" issue:

• Encourage editorial board visits and op-ed publication by economists on the regressivity, unfairness and unwise policy implications of excise taxes;
• Publicize, via media tours, the new "social cost" studies, as well as the Tollison and Wagner book.
• Publicize the findings on "earmarking " of excise taxes to be published.

• Aggressively promote the Tollison earmarking book. Promotion will include media tours on the earmarking issue with economists sponsored by an academic institution. Commission op-eds and promote in targeted publications.
• Develop an op-ed program to address the national earmarking issue and state specific earmarking issues from consulting economists. As articles are published, provide to other Institute divisions and promote to appropriate public policymakers. Use field staff network to support distribution efforts.
• Develop arguments and materials to demonstrate that smokers are paying too much already. Materials may include studies, testimony, op-eds and lobbying tools for industry representatives.
• As appropriate, encourage economic consultants to use "social cost" arguments to counter portrayal of excise taxes as user fees on the state and federal level.

1990 Apr 24: He has been breaking bread with a group of Louisiana Representatives and a bunch of Tobacco Institute lobbyists over a Dinner costing $800.00.

1990 May 15: Morris Coats gives testimony on behalf of the tobacco industry before the Louisiana Ways and Means Committee. The statements he makes are borrowed directly from those purportedly written by Wendell Sweetser for West Virginia a few years before. [See above]

According to economist Morris Coats of Nicholls State University (Thibodaux, LA) , tax revenues from cigarette sales will rise by nearly $10 million in Louisiana without a tax increase. This is because Texas now has the nation's highest cigarette tax. According to Coats, Lousiana retailers will experience a surge in cross border cigarette sales as Texas residents take advantage of a $2.50 per carton tax savings in Louisiana.

    The result, according to the Nicholls State economist, will be an excise and sales tax windfall for Louisiana. Better yet, this revenue gain comes without piling more regressive taxes on the working man. According to Coats,Mwhy should Louisiana hurt its low and middle class citizens with a cigarette tax increase of 5 or 10 cents a pack when it can sit back and reap its cross border windfall."

See Sweetser's earlier statement


[This testimony and Sweetser's article were based entirely on figures generated by Bill Orzechowski from the Tobacco Institute. Coats hadn't seen these figures until a few days before the hearing, at most.]

It is estimated by Nicholls State economist Coats that because of the current tax difference with Texas, Louisiana's cigarette sales will rise by approximately 8.2%.

[This assumes smoking is price-elastic; the cheaper the cigarettes, the more they smoke. Which is a very good reason to charge the highest excise taxes on cigarettes that the legislature will tolerate.]

    Coats calculates this will trigger $6.1 million more cigarette excise tax revenue, $2.3 million more sales tax revenue from the new cigarette sales, and another $1.5 million in sales tax revenue from an increase in sundry product sales. This stacks up to a hefty $9.9 million revenue windfall for Louisiana.

    Coats warns that this tax windfall will be greatly jeopardized by further cigarette tax increases in Louisiana.
[The Tobacco Institute obviously have these statements in boiler-plate form, where the economist only needs to drop in the appropriate costs per packet, and guess at a percentage rise. ]

1990 May 18: Tobacco Institute report of the Louisiana hearings (HB 944)

INDUSTRY ACTION
Pat McWhorter and Bill Orzechowski traveled to Baton Rouge on 4/26 to meet with Joe Wood, Sarah Whalen, Randy Haney, C. J. Blache, Betsy Giles to discuss strategies for fighting cigarette tax.

    It was agreed that we would need an economic witness to testify in our behalf before Ways & Means Committee.

    Pat, Bill and Joe interviewed Morris Coats, Ph.D., from the Department of Economics and Finance at Nicholls State University. Orzechowski prepared economic impact papers for a 10-cent cigarette tax increase.

1990 May 22: Attached to the Strategy document (above) is a slightly later report from Martin Gleason (Public Affairs) at the Institute which reports on some early successes. Re: the economists network he reports.

Texas economic program
• Developed regressivity and bootlegging studies (PW) [ Price Waterhouse]
• Economist ( Mike Davis) editorial board briefings

Economic witnesses
• Dwight Lee provided for Wilmington, N.C.— city council session on economic consequences of excise tax increase
• Morris Coates — testified in Baton Rouge on proposed LA excise tax increase.

1990 May 24: Morris Coats has enjoyed giving evidence for the tobacco industry at the Baton Rouge hearings and has written to Bill Orzechowski
[The Tobacco Institute's Chief (in-house) Economist.]

Enclosed, find the bill for my expenses and testimony before the Louisiana Ways and Means Committee, May 15, 1990. I cannot find the receipt for the toll bridge. Take care of these as you see fit. The total for my expenses and fee was $1607.63. Please mail the payment to my home address: 508 Levert Drive, Thibodaux, Louisiana 70301.

    I enjoyed working with you on this. If I can ever be of any help to you or the Tobacco Institute, please let me know.

    P.S. If you are ever this way again and have a weekend, let me know ahead of time and I will try to arrange a fishing trip to Toledo Bend.

1990 Jun 6: The invoice for Coats' testimony has been passed through James Savarese and Associates. Expenses are $107.63 and his Professional fees are $1,500.

1990 Jun 26: Walter Woodson (PR) to Susan Stuntz (Issues Manager) at the Tobacco Institute. Woodson wanted to be able to deal with economists like Coats directly, rather than through Jim Savarese (who obviously charged for his services).

In the face of a very serious excise tax hike in Louisiana, Pat McWhorter asked that Professor Coats share information with lawmakers (and I think the press) on excise hikes. Coats is an economist Orzechowski dredged up and ran past the econ team. He shared the attached, based on numbers Orzechowski drew up from his economic models.

[In other words, the Tobacco Institute supplied the figures, and Coats just pretended they were his.]

McWhorter said the credibility that native-son Coats brought to the scene was instrumental in stopping (so far) the tax hike. He said Coats made the difference.

    This is a long way of asking about those 60 economists Savarese supposedly has around the country. Is it possible for us to tap them for similar authorship? Coats charged us 200 bucks to do this; if we could get similar help from the "Savarese 60," it might really help — in conjunction with actual testimony from the 5-6 economists who can walk and talk.

1990 July 30: Morris Coats has given testimony for the Tobacco Institute before the Louisiana House Ways and Means Committee opposing the "Proposed Tax Increase on Cigarettes". (Assistant Professor) Coats, now of Nicholl State University, is using the name of (Professor) Sweetser's of Marshall University to support his and the Tobacco Institute's arguments. As graduate students they had previously worked together on a similar study.

    In this piece to the Committee, Coats rolls out the same old 'regressive tax' arguments saying "the poorest twenty percent pay about 20 times [that of] the richest. [percentagewise]."

    Bill Orzechowski, the resident economic lobbyist at the Tobacco Institute, has sent the transcript to Wendell Sweetser for information. Presumably this is because Coats had used Sweetser's earlier excise tax statement for West Virginia as his own arguments opposing the same taxes in Louisiana.

    Since they were friends and associates, Orzechowski may have felt the need to clear the Coats statement with Sweetser before using it.

1990 Sep 26: Kurt Malmgren's Tobacco Institute telex re: Sacramento County, California Ordinance

On September 25, the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors on first reading voted 3-2 to adopt a strict ordinance banning smoking in the workplace and phasing out smoking in restaurants by 1993.

Terry Eagan — along with expert consultants Gray Robertson (IAQ), David Weeks, MD, (ETS), John Fox (labor/management attorney) and Melinda Sidak (C&B) were the subject of print and broadcast interviews.

    Please contact me if you have questions, as we prepare for the referendum phase of this project.

• March 16 — Topeka, KS — Legislative Hearing — Dwight Lee
• March 30 — Park Ridge, IL — Local Hearing — Dwight Lee
• March 21 — "Social Cost" media tour, New York City — Bob Tollison
• April 12 — Honolulu, HI — Legislative hearing — Dick Wagner
• April 30 — New Hanover, NC — Local Hearing — Dwight Lee
• April (Editorial tour) — "Social cost" Texas Newspapers — Mike Davis
• May 9 — Baton Rouge, LA — Legislative hearing — Morris Coats.

1995 Dec: The National Tax Journal has an article by R Morris Coats "A note on estimating Cross-Border Effects of State Cigarette Taxes."

    Coats fails to credit Bill Orzechowski, the resident economic lobbyist at the Tobacco Institute, who provided all the charts and calculations for him during the March 1990 Louisiana House Ways and Means Committee hearing, where he appears for the tobacco industry, opposing the proposed tax increase on cigarettes.



[Claims that tax hikes will increase interstate smuggling were pretty much the only arguments that the industry could mount. Years of corruption and the release of documents had thoroughly discredited the industry.

    Only in a state as corrupt as Louisiana could the industry mount more than a token effort to change legislation after 1996. This is probably why Coats was retained as a consultant when the main network had collapsed.

    His paper on smuggling became one of the industry's most quoted documents in the dying days following the Master Settlement Agreement.]

He also appears to have turned it into a lecture with powerpoint slides"

1998 Apr: /E The Alexis de Tocqueville Institute, always available for hire by the tobacco companies (about $30,000 per report), has been persuaded to report on "Tobacco Smuggling: A Worldwide Phenomenon". They have churned out this Draft, of the Tobacco Institute's message:

Congress is considering legislation that will substantially increase the cost of smoking. When all is said and done, prices for cigarettes will probably double in the next few years, from about $2 per pack to more than $4. Such a significant rise in price for this popular, easily transported commodity will, without a doubt, increase the demand for contraband cigarettes.

    Increases in cigarette taxes historically have led to increases in smuggling; tax decreases have diminished the problem.

    The purpose of this report is to review the evidence on cigarette smuggling, both in the U.S. and elsewhere. It strongly suggests that Congress should be very careful in levying excessive taxes on tobacco, lest it give rise to a massive increase in legal sales that will both reduce revenue to the government and undermine efforts to discourage smoking.

• Richard P Saba at. al., "The Demand for Cigarette Smuggling," Economic Inquiry.vol. 33, no.-2 (April 1995), pp: 189-202;
• R. Morris Coats, "A Note on Estimating Cross-Border Effects of State Cigarette Taxes," National-Tax Journal, vol. 48, no. 4 (December 1995), pp. 573-84;
• Richard K. Vedder, "Bordering on Chaos; Fiscal Federalism and Excise Taxes," in William F. Shughart II, ed., Taxing Choice: The Predatory Politics of Fiscal Discrimination (New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publish- ete, 1997)

1998 May 5: The Tobacco Institute, now on its last legs, has made a payment to Morris Coats of "Professional Fees" $4,320.99 for "Testimony".

1999 Mar 8: The Tobacco Institute has had a Reconciliation Report on its Riggs National Bank account for the period up to January 31. Among the hundreds of accounts taking their final cut is one for R Morris Coats, for $4,200 — the only recognizable name from the cash-for-comments list still working for the Tobacco Institute.

1999 Oct 2: Morris Coats remains on the Vendor's List of the Tobacco Institute, and is still at the same Thirodaux address. This is after the Master Settlement Agreement has begun to closed down the Tobacco Institute and (temporarily) most of the tobacco industry's corrupt practices.

    Almost all the old network economists have disappeared from this suppliers' list, except for

• R Morris Coats, 508 Levert Drive, Thibodaux LA

1999 Dec 6: Morris Coats has now gone over to work for Philip Morris, now that the Tobacco Institute is no more. The Weekly Activities Report for Issues Managment for November has an entry:

J. DUNHAM
Excise Tax Analysis

• Met with Morris Coats of LSU (sic) to discuss a project he is doing on tax stamping.

Other Analysis

• Attended Southern Economics Association Meeting in New Orleans
  • Presented paper on business clustering
  • Attended presentation of PM sponsored paper on assessments
  • Discussed two papers and chaired a session

2000 May 1: Coats has an op-ed in the Bayou Business Review: "Spending Daddy's money: Louisiana's tax system in action."

[Governor] Foster also plans to hike taxes on "sin," increasing taxes on casino: gambling, beer, liquor and cigarettes. (Wine seems to have been left out, hmmm?)

    Increasing the tax on beer, liquor and cigarettes will certainly cause substantial losses in sales in the border areas of the state, as these are easily transportable across state lines. Increasing taxes on so-called "sin" items is often just the politically expedient way to raise taxes. For many voters, sin taxes tax, as Russell Long put it, "the man behind the tree," which really amounts to making someone else pay for those voters' bills.

2000 May 2: Coats has put out a Press Release on his own letterhead. He is still riding the old horse of cigarette smuggling: Basic economics of legislative package unsound: Tax increases will drive consumers out of Louisiana

    He also blows his own trumpet:

Coats, an expert in cross border sales, the phenomenon of pushing sales of excise tax-sensitive products out of high tax areas into lower tax jurisdictions, said the proposed increases will cause reductions in tax collections for two primary reasons. "Higher taxes on consumer items such as tobacco, beer and alcohol result in higher prices," said Coats, "since retailers are generally unable to absorb the taxes at current prices.

2005: He appears to have still been writing in support of the tobacco industry.

    R.Andrew Luccasen & R. Morris Coats & G. Karahan, 2005. "Cigarette smuggling mitigates the public health benefits of cigarette taxes," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor and Francis Journals, vol. 12(12),

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