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

William J Hunter was an Associate Professor of Economics at the Marquette Uni, Milwaukee. He was also associated with the Center for Study of Public Choice, George's Hall, George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia which is Robert Tollison's front organisation.

He became part of a network put together by tobacco lobbyist James Savarese and Professor Robert Tollison of George Mason University who collaborated in the 1980s to provide the tobacco industry [through the Tobacco Institute] with a number of academics who would be willing to write propaganda material ... always provided their names were not linked to the industry or to any of the cigarette companies.

The idea was simply that the 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 academics to the tobacco industry because the distinction between economics and politics was never clear: so support of the cigarette companies could always be claimed as support for free-market economics ... the rights of individuals to make public choices ... small government ... or even the first Amendment to the Constitution.

The economist always claimed to be 'independent', 'professionals' and they wre recognised 'academics' 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 precision, 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 willing to jump into action and write op-ed articles for their local newspaper, or to appear at local ordinance or legislative hearings. Copies of these articles were always to be sent to a local Congressman who sat on some important (to the tobacco industry) committee.

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!

Some key documents

• Associate Professor of Economics, Marquette Uni, Milwaukee.

• See his C/V sent to the Tobacco Institute May 1987

1946 July 12: Born

1974: BS Business and Economics Marquette University

1975–76: Marquette University Teaching Assistant

1976: MS. Economics Marquette University

1976–77: Virginia Polytechnic Instituteand State University Research Assistant

1977–79: Center for Study of Public Choice, Graduate Fellow

1979: PhD. Economics Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

1979–82: Central Michigan University Assistant Professor

1982: Charles Breeden is listed as a co-writer and academic associate of William J Hunter Both are economists at Marquette University in Wisconsin and both were later active members of the economists' network.

    Hunter and Breeden were also membera of the Public Choice Society (Hayek/neo-con economists) who's president is Bob Tollison. Tollison was also the Director of the Center for the Study of Public Choice, at George Mason University and the main tobacco industry recruiter of academic economists [See Hunter's C/V.]
[Breeden and Hunter also joined force with professor Gene Smiley and businessman Franklin Buchta to establish the Wisconsin chapter of the HeartLand Institute. The Heartland Institute was heavily tobacco funded, and Philip Morris kept special files on its activities.]

1982: Marquette University, Assistant Professor

1985 Jan 31: Hurst Marshall has distributed this Tobacco Institute list of economists from the cash-for-comments network. 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.

    Please notify your lobbyists as to the availability of these people. At the same time, you may wish to ask them for their ideas or suggestions for other economists within their states.

WISCONSIN, [No Congressman identified with Hunter]
  •   William Hunter
      Maquette University, Milwaukee, Wisconsin

1985 Feb 7: Judy Wiedemeier of the Tobacco Institute is writing to the regional lobbyists.

Attached for your information, are the names of economists who have been identified by our Public Relation department to assist T.I. on the federal cigarette excise tax issue. These people are also available to testify at the state level.

    If you feel this type of witness can be of assistance to you, please contact me for details and arrangements. If you have any ideas or suggestions for other economists within your state, please let me know, as we are always expanding our resources.

WISCONSIN

Professor William Hunter
Marquette University Milwaukee, Wisconsin

1985 Feb 21: Roger Mozingo of the Tobacco Institute is sending his state directors a list of resources available to fight against excise taxes in their states. William Hunter heads their state list of available economic witnesses for Wisconsin.

• K Celese Gaspari (Uni of Vermont) — a cash-for-comment economist
• David N Laband (Uni of Maryland) — a cash-for-comment economist
• Fred McChesney (Emory Uni) — a cash-for-comment economist
• Dean Tipps — nominally a union official — actually Citizens for Tax Justice lobbyist
• Allen M Parkman (Uni of New Mexico) — a cash-for-comment economist
• Richard Vedder (Ohio Uni) — a cash-for-comment economist
• Roger Faith (Arkansas State Uni) — a cash-for-comment economist
• Lee Alston (Williams college) — a cash-for-comment economist
• William Hunter (Marquette Uni) — a cash-for-comment economist
• Dennis Logue (Dartmouth College) — a cash-for-comment economist
• William Shughart (George Mason Uni) — a cash-for-comment economist
• Harold Hochman (City Uni of New York) — a cash-for-comment economist
• David Wilhelm (Citizens for Tax Justice) — think-tank lobbyist
• Joseph Jadlow (Oklahoma State Uni) — a cash-for-comment economist
• Robert Ekelund (Auburn Uni) — a cash-for-comment economist
• Thomas Borcherding (Claremont Grad. School) — a cash-for-comment economist

1986: This is the Tollison/Saverese network list for 1986. It has 64 names, but it still doesn't cover all 50 States. Some States have two or three network members, so newspapers [and sometimes Congressmen] need to be specified for each member to ensure there is no accidental duplication.

    Telephone numbers (office and home) are often included in case an urgent op-ed or ordinance hearing is needed. These are grouped by State:

WISCONSIN
Professor William Hunter
    Department of Economics, Marquette University, Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53233, 414-224-7377(Also) Center for Study of Public Choice George's Hall, George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia 22030

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, or write letters to the editor, or op-eds for the newspapers to counter the public smoking or excise tax threat. It lists him as a contact in:

• Professor William Hunter, Department of Economics,
  Marquette University, Milwaukee WI

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.

[Note his close associate from a later period, Charles Breeden from the same university, is not on the list at this time.]

1986 Apr 3: James Savarese writes to his stable of economists on the subject of "New Research Opportunities." [A sure-fire come-on with academics]

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.

    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.

... 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.

    If some aspect of this interests you, please provide me with a brief (1-2 page) description of any project you have in mind by April 30. Please include a cost approximation.

1986 Apr 3: This appears to be the 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 May: /E A Tobacco Institute list of "Schedule of Payments - Excise Tax Op-Ed project." (April-May 1986) This lists those academic economists who have already planted their article on a local newspaper, and the amount they are to be paid.

    They appear to have been paid $900 for each article, and $1025 if they had also made contact with their local Congressman. However a number of the cash-for-comments network members still have not completed their commission.

    The George Mason (Uni) production staff of Bob Tollison, Bill Shughart, and Gary Anderson were paid for "rewrites, editing and research, 18 articles", and Carol Robert for the "production of final product " a total of $18,000 + $1067 expenses [or $1000 per article to make them saleable propaganda for their newspapers]

Hunter of Wisconsin has been given the target of planting his article on the Wisconsin St. Journal and was due for payment of $900.
A later Schedule of Payments increases this amount by another "$125 + $975.00 — Paid in Full"

    The GMU production staff were also being paid another $9,500 for rewrites, editing and research on 9 additional articles, while Savarese seems to have been charging $5,800 + $235 in expenses for recruiting replacement economists in California, Montana, New York, Ohio and Tennessee.

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 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.

Fiscal policy; public finance; collective choice; state and local government

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.

WISCONSIN
Professor William Hunter
    Marquette University, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
    [Specializing in] Fiscal policy; public finance; collective choice; state and local government

1986 Dec 8: Sam Chilcote is summing up the Tobacco Institute's activities in fighting the Packwood Tax Plan which attempted to impose special excise taxes on tobacco, alcohol and fuel (in the oil crisis years) to reduce use. Packwood also wanted to make these taxes and tarffs non-deducatable for federal income tax purposes.

    The document bundle (219 pages) includes:

• Pages 2 to 34: A major study done for the TI by Policy Economics Group
• Pages 35 to 50: Another major study commissioned from DeSeve Economics for the Coalition Against Regressive Taxation (CART) [funded by tobacco to act as a front]
• Pages 51 to 57: A couple of papers done for Covington & Burling
• Pages 58 to 100: A long document which has deliberately NOT included the name of the organisation which produced it within the document itself. (But done by deSeve Economics Associates Inc).
• Pages 101 to 129 : A paper on the "Burden of Tobacco Taxes on Selected Demographic Groups"
• Pages 130 to 144: Some booklet trying to rabble-rouse the Hispanic and Black communities and make them believe Packwood is attacking them racially.
• Page 145 to 177: A Citizens for Tax Justice 'poll' on attitudes. and Coalition Against Regressive Taxation document
• From Page 178 on: many of the op-eds they have had published in newspapers by the cash-for-comment academic economists,

See pages 210 to 219 of the bundle which have multiple Letters-to-editor/commentary from 17 cash-for-comments economists — William Hunter, Dennis Logue, William Shugart, Harold Hochman. David Wilhelm, Joseph Jadlow, Robert Ekelund, Thomas Borcherding, K Celeste Gaspari, David Laband, Fred McChesney, Dean Tipps, Allen Parkman, Richard Vedder, Roger Faith, Lee Alson, and William Hunter,
      They had obviously managed to plant these multiple-author pieces on a number of newspapers.

1986 Dec 11: James Savarese sends Fred Panzer at the Tobacco Institute a summary of the activities of his network of economists. This is effectively the beginning of the main cash-for-comments economists network.

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.

• 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 this network member were:

Wisconsin [ Region IV ]

Professor William Hunter

Department of Economics, Marquette University, Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53233, 414-224-7377

Services rendered:
• original excise tax op-ed
• GSA letter writing campaign

1987 /E: Charles Breeden and his associate William J Hunter (both Masquette Uni, Economics Department) are on the Advisory Board of the Heartland Institute, then run by John Ashcroft. They are jointly associated here with Joseph Bast, the Executive Director of Heartland, who is also a Midwest Economic Summit Advisor as listed by the Tobacco Institute.

    Breeden and Hunter are both also on the Business and Economic Development committee of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) organisation which can only mean they have decided to become actively involved in political lobbying.

See
Heartland ALEC
Midwest advisors:

1987 Jan 6: and 12 Jim Savarese advises the Tobacco Institute that some economists were no longer working for his network. However Hunter is still being listed as their main Wisconsin economist-for-hire.

In order to keep this project straight with respect to the economists, 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.

    The attached invoice covers the project of re-contacting the original 42 economists and coming up with the present 34 people.

The primary purpose of this contact is to determine if a given economist is capable of testifying effectively before a legislative body.

    They have been informed that someone from TI will be in contact with them.

    We request that an initial contact be made by telephone immediately. Please let me know when this initial contact has been made. Personal meetings should be arranged and completed no later than May 1, 1987.

1987 Jan 6: Savarese is charging the Tobacco Institute $3,200 to update the cash-for-comments economists list (with William Hunter still active)

1987 Feb 6: James Savarese has finalised his list of compliant economists, and sends them to Susan Stuntz at the Tobacco Institute. It lists all the familiar cash-for-comment economists plus a few new ones.[Greg Niehaus, Mario Rizzo, Roger Riefler, and Boon Yoon.]

Old faithfuls: Lee Anderson, Terry Anderson, Dom Armento, Cecil Bohanon, Thomas Borcherding, Henry Butler, JR Clark, John David, Allan Dalton, Arthur Denzau, Clifford Dobitz, Robert Ekelund, David Gay, Anne Harper-Fender, Dennis Hein, John Howe, Wm Hunter, Joe Jadlow, Michael Kurth, Suuner LaCroix, Dwight Lee, C Matt Lindsay, Dennis Logue, Chuck Mason [Masen], Charles Maurice, Fred McChesney, Robert McMahon, Arthur Mead, Wm Mitchell, Allen Parkman, Wm Peterson, Thomas Pogue, Barry Poulson, Raymond Raab, Simon Rottenberg, Mark Schmitz, Richard Vedder, Richard Wagner

1987 May 1: The Tobacco Institute has written to all its State and Regional Directors requesting that they personally check our and evaluate the academic economists who have signalled that they are willing (for a healthy commission) to provide personal witness statements at ordinance of legislative hearings.

    George Minshew of the State Activities division has sent out this memo to prod them into action:

It has been several months since the original request was given to you. Some of the witnesses have testified and been in your territories during this time, therefore evaluation of those will be a simple matter of getting it done. As to the others, may I suggest that you talk with you lobbyist, pick up your telephone and talk with the economist, go to see the economist, talk with someone who has dealt with him....whatever it takes to get it done now.

    This notice is not meant as a request or to ask what you thoughts are in this matter. It is direct instructions to get this project completed without any more delay. We will all pay one hell of a price should we end up without this resource and find that it was a plus factor that would win a battle or two in the future.

1987 May 5: Cotton Mather ('Matt') Lindsay of Clemson University has written an article "Excise Taxes: Facist Finance" which is being circulated at the Tobacco Institute. He has discovered through his extensive research that:

it is difficult to achieve vertleal equity [equal burden on everyone] through excise taxes because the amount of the tax paid depends on purchases rather than income.

    Breweries and tobacco companies write checks to the government for the excise taxes on beer and cigarettes, but here economists agree; these companies pass these taxes on to consumers. One's share of the burden of the revenues raised by these taxes depends on how much beer one drinks and how much one smokes.

    The unfairness of these excises is manifest; it is not merely another economists' debating point. The tobacco excise tax, for example, is the most regressive tax in the federal system. It is paid only by smokers who are today predominantly lower-middle income earners, lower income working women and blue collar workers.

    Some have argued that these taxes are appropriate because the funds can be earmarked for expenditures like Medicare, environmental protection and even public employee pensions. Why beer drinkers and cigarette smokers ought to pay more for such things is far from clear, however. To the extent that these activities shorten life, they relieve the burdens of Medicare and pension funds by removing potential claimants from the eligibility roles.

    Viewed from another perspective, smokers and beer drinkers not only bear a disproportionate share of taxes because they pay excises on these commodities, but they get less for their money, too. Because they live a shorter life span, they collect less in retirement benefits and receive fewer Medicare benefits.

    This may be fine for Mussolini, but it is antithetical to tax principles in a free and open society.

Professor William Hunter:
"Yes: Will be good witness"

1987 May 22: Michael Brozek the Regional Vice President for Region IV wrote to George Minshew at the Tobacco Institute presenting his Economic Witness Evaluation. He writes:

Please convey to those in charge of the economic witness program; it is one thing to evaluate an economic witness over lunch, by telephone or over cocktails. But, it is quite another thing to evaluate these potential witnesses in the acrimonious, politically charged, circus-like disarray of a committee hearing. In essence, some of these guys (as in the case of Minnesota) fold under any unfriendly inquisition.

    The ivory tower is different from the political trenches.

    My recommendation, if we are to continue this economic witness program, a political orientation would be advisable in order to better equip these witnesses for potentially politicized circumstances.

WISCONSIN: Professor William Hunter
I have spoken with Professor Hunter by telephone. Due to the budgetary process in Wisconsin, ie. eaucus system, only written correspondence with regard to economic information may be feasible.

    However, TI legislative counsel Paul Sicula, Professor Hunter and myself will meet on Wednesday, 5/27/87 to review economic models of Wisconsin and Minnesota.

Yes: will be a good witness

1987 May 27: In this document, Michel Brozek, the Regional Director of the Tobacco Institute, has been in contact with Professor William Hunter, who is enlisted as an available economist, to evaluate his ongoing value to the tobacco industry. He writes:

[I]t is one thing to evaluate an economic witness over lunch, by telephone or over cocktails. But, it is quite another thing to evaluate these potential witnesses in the acrimonious, politically charged, circus-like disarray of a committee hearing. In essence, some of these guys (as in the case of Minnesota) fold under any unfriendly inquisition. The ivory tower is different from the political trenches.

    My recommendation, if we are to continue this economic witness program, [is that] a political orientation would be advisable in order to better equip these witnesses for potentially politicized circumstances. [ie he only wants libertarian or neo-con partisan warriors.]

    I have spoken with Professor Hunter by telephone. Due to the budgetary process in Wisconsin, ie. caucus system, only written correspondence with regard to economic information may be feasible. However, TI legislative counsel Paul Sicula, Professor Hunter and myself will meet on Wednesday, 5/27/87 to review economic models of Wisconsin and Minnesota.

1987 June 9: The Tobacco Institute's Phase II - Excise Tax Op-Ed Project involving an article-writing campaign by cash-for-comment economists. was run by James Savarese & Associates. Robert Tollison at George Mason University secretly recruited and controlled this network with James Savarese & Associates as the front.

    At the Tobacco Institute in the mid-1987 period, the project was directed by Jeff Rose [under Vice President for Issues Management, Peter Sparber] and it focussed on defeating cigarette excise tax increases — especially the threat of such taxes being 'earmarked' to bolster health care budgets.

Anna Tollison, the wife of Bob Tollison, was employed by James Savarese to keep a record of the articles generated by the large contingent of academic economists, and to organise their payment. She reported this month that

"In sum, 41 economists were solicited to write editorials. We have publications in 20 states, 14 articles have been written and submitted, and 7 articles are still outstanding." [Others were in the offing]

WISCONSIN:
Hunter — Wisconsin State Journal 4/27/87 (Circulation 140,000)

1987 June 22: The Tobacco Institute has been sent by Savarese a "Schedule of Payments — Excise Tax Op-Ed Project." This is a detailed accounting for all the current active members of the network.

    It details the name of the cash-for-comment economist, the State, the targetted newspaper, and both past and current payments — with a separate column labled "Total Earned to Date".

In WISCONSIN
Hunter for Wisconsin State Journal —Owed $975 — Total to date $2000

He also reports on

• Professor Thomas Pogue (IOWA)
  Including a C/V
• Professor Raymond Raab (MINNESOTA)
  Including a C/V
• Professor Roger Riefler (NEBRASKA)
• Professor Cliff Dobitz (NORTH DAKOTA)
  Including a C/V
• Professor Dennis Hein (SOUTH DAKOTA)
  Including a C/V

1987 June 23: Savarese writes to Jeff Ross at the Tobacco Institute sending along a list of Democrat members of the House Ways and Means Committee...

... along with the economists we use in those areas. Nine of these are good, solid hits which we should be able to count on to do the job and get a publication. I have *ed these on the attached list. The remaining 6 are all people we have used in the past, but who have not been consistently successful.

    Since I'm under a new financial arrangement with the Tobacco Institute and I need to get these costs cleared in advance, I'll make my best effort here to budget this proposed project.

    If all 15 would get published, which is highly unlikely, the cost of Phase II Excise Tax Op-ed Project would run $45,000.

    More than likely we'll get 8-10 placements and 3 to 4 others who won't get placed, but will still send letters to their members on the Ways and Means Committee. In that case, the cost will be $37,000.

1987 July: a selected group of the economists have been commissioned to write op-eds about cutting the deficit — and to de-emphasise the value of excise taxes. Generally they follow the line of listing four possibilities approaches

• a general consumption tax (efficient but regressive)
• increased excise taxes (inefficient and regressive)
• a national lottery (regressive and competitive with State lotteries)
• increased income taxes (unpopular)

1987 Aug 21: Jeff Ross at the Tobacco Institute has prepared a consolidated summary of "Field Staff Evaluation of Economists" for his superiors, William Kloepfer and Peter Sparber. They have been asked to look at 34 of these academics. This includes an outline of their recent achievements.

WISCONSIN
Professor William Hunter Marquette University Milwaukee, WI

Excise Tax Op Eds: Wisconsin State Journal — 04/27/87
Economic Witness/Testimony:
Field Staff Contact: Scheduled meeting 05/27/87.
Field Staff Evaluation: None.

1987 Aug 31: Peter Sparber [Issues Manager] to Bill Kloepfer [PR head] at the Tobacco Institute:

Jeff [Rose] has done a good job of summarizing the economic consultant situation and I am attaching my copy of his report with some marginal notes. I think he should consider sending a collection of all of the published op-ed pieces to each of the consultants for the sake of inspiration.

    In the case of those who have not had an article accepted for publication I would like to know whether they submitted one.

Two general comments from field staff warrant some consideration. Michael Brozak recommended a political orientation to prepare witnesses for potentially politicized hearings.

    We agree and recommend that State Activities consider advising field staff to conduct such briefings as appropriate. Richard Scanlan suggested that an economist from the state capital city is much more valuable. We have asked Savarese and Tollison to see if they can identify a candidate.

1988 Feb 8: The Tobacco Institute to its Regional VPs and Directors.

Attached is an updated list of The Institute's cadre of excise tax economists. These economists are available for testimony, one-on-one meetings with legislators, writing letters and op-ed pieces in the states in which they teach, as well as in any state you deem appropriate.

1988 April 25: NorthWest Airlines had just implemented the first ban on short domestic flights (formalised by the FAA on April 23rd), and the Tobacco Institute was turning out its lobbyists to convince the other airlines that smoking bans of any kind were a bad idea. The economists were central to this propaganda project.

• Michael Babcock (Kansas Uni) wrote "Good service, not gimmicks win fliers" for the Topeka Capital-Journal which suggested that Northwest was a dangerous and unreliable airline, and that it should concentrate on maintenance and safety rather than persecuting smokers.
• Michael Kurth (McNeese State) wrote "Market forces are the best way to guarantee freedom" for the Shreveport Journal. He saw it in personal freedom terms:

  The political remedy to social conflict is to ban "offensive" behavior. In a democracy, that usually means the behavior of a minority. That is what the Federal Aviation Administration did when it banned smoking on all airline flights lasting more than two hours. Some air travelers were offended by the smoking of other passengers, even though the smokers were isolated in the back of the plane.
  
      But by what criteria were their preferences elevated and satisfied over the preferences of smokers?

• Ryan Amacher (Clemson University) had "Eliminating choice failed marketplace test" He claims that the Northwest Airlines experience had been a disaster (in fact it was highly successful). He also suggests Northwest was a dangerous airline to fly.
• JR Clark (Uni of Tennessee) had "Focus on service would help airlines most" in the Memphis Commercial Appeal.
• Michael Davis (Southern Methodist University) had "Smoking ban gets good test" in the Times Herald
• William Hunter (Marquette Uni) had "Airline smoking ban example of free-market conflice resolution" in the Capital Times.. He damns the Northwest policy for "failing the market test" and praises those airlines which were competing without smoking bans.

1988 Dec: At the beginning of 1988, Northwest Airlineshad successfully banned smoking on all US domestic flights. Then in April 1988 a two-year trial smoking ban on all domestic flights of less than two hours duration had been introduced by the FAA.

    The tobacco industry had flown into a panic since their own polling showed that a majority of airline passengers (smokers and non-smokers) were reasonably happy with such bans. They therefore instructed the cash-for-comments network economists to write articles attacking the financial stability of Northwest, attack its safety record, and preaching the need for smoking 'tolerance'.

    The resulting articles generally took the line that Northwest Airlines was suffering financially... when in fact, the ban had been generally successful. This was, in fact, a clear attempt at influencing the stock-market to put pressure on airline management.

    Involved in this disinformation exercise were

• Michael Babcock, Kansas State Uni (Topeka Capital-Journal) "Good service, not gimmicks win fliers"
• Michael Kurth McNeese State Uni, letters to the editor. (Shreveport Journal)
• Ryan Amacher, Clemson University (unknown) "Eliminating choice failed market test
• JR Clark, Uni of Tennessee, Martin (Memphis Commercial Appeal) "Focus on service would help airlines most.
• Michael Davis, Southern Methodist Uni (LA Times Syndicate/Times Herald) "Smoking ban gets good test."
• William Hunter, Marquette Uni (The Capital Times) "Airlines smoking ban example of free-market conflict resolution."

1989 Jan 11: This is an 80 page mixed bag of files dumped together. [First is from 1990]

• Pages 3 to 23 It begins with Witness Appearances in 1988 and 1989 involving both "Indoor Air Quality experts" who work for the Tobacco Institute, and three economists [ Bob Tollison, Richard Wagner and Dwight Lee]
• Pages 24 to 31 Labor IAQ Presentations in 1988 and 1989 which involves key figures in the labor movement and a few "IAQ experts."
• Pages 32 to 39 IAQ/ETS conferences attended by tobacco industry disinformation experts in 1988 and 1989
• Pages 40 to 41 Academic and Unaffiliated Scientfic Witnesses
• Pages 43 to 53 Smokers Rights Legislation in various states.
• See page 54: Tobacco Institute "Confidential" memo on "Tax Hearing Readiness" which is their battle plan to counter earmaking of cigarette excise taxes to fund health programs. It lists a large number of organizations and a few congressmen who can be relied on to help. It also has both primary and secondary lists of economists from Tollison's "cash-for-comments" network willing to give testimony.

  Economists: [Primary]

  • Bill Orzechowski, Tobacco Institute
  • Robert Tollison, George Mason University
  • Richard Wagner, George Mason University
  • Dwight Lee, University of Georgia, Athens
  • Michael Davis, Southern Methodist University
  • Gary Anderson, California State at Northridge
  • William Prendergast (resource: Prendergast/Solmon papers)
  • Other Network economists [see Secondary attached list below]

  
  
      "Due by mid-year is a book examining earmarking and "user fees" from a public choice perspective. The treatise will contain 8-10 chapters written by respected economists, including, Henri LePage and Nobel laureate James Buchanan."

  The Tobacco Institute's list of cash-for-comments professors and senior academics who were available to write op-eds and give evidence at Congressional hearings, etc. had grown extensively.

  Wisconsin now has him listed at two institutions:

  • Professor William Hunter, Department of Economics, Marquette University
    Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53233, 414-224-7377
  • Center for Study of Public Choice
    George's Hall, George Hason University, Fairfax, Virginia 22030

[TI budget papers show that:

• Each op-ed earned the economists $3,000.
• Presentations to conferences earned them $5,000.
• Savarese was paid $70 to $100,000 pa for this project,
• Ogilvy & Mather charged $250,000.

1989 Feb: The Tobacco Institute's report on its Communications Activities [with a a focus on blocking smoking bans on airlines] says:

The 2/9/89 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association published a report on smoking aboard aircraft.

    The Institute responded and issued a press release (copy enclosed). Aggressively promoting the position that the study does not support a total airline smoking ban, TI speakers pressed our position in a number of interviews with print and broadcast media. Press reports and transcripts are enclosed.

    Three reviews (copies enclosed), giving Northwest Airline's smoking ban a failing grade, were published [by network members]:
• Michael Davis, visiting assistant professor of Economics at Southern Methodist University, in the Dallas Times Herald;
• William Hunter, association professor of economics at Marquette University, in the Capital Times (Madison, WI);
• Michael Babcock, professor of Economics at Kansas State University, in the Topeka Capital-Journal.

1989 Mar 17-19: The Annual Meeting of the Public Choice Society together with the Economic Science Association. These are Hayek-oriented neo-con economists of the kind which gave us the Global Financial Crisis of 2008-9. The speakers list contains many active members of the economists network: — some of whom spoke many times. (William Hunter in particular.) It is clear that this society was a profitable recruiting ground for Tollison and Savarese.

    The large group of speakers connected with Tollison's Center for the Study of Public Choice at George Mason University completely dominated the conference session on Public Health.

• Robert Tollison
• Richard Wagner
• David ER Gay
• Dwight Lee
• William C Mitchell
• Burton Abrams
• Cecil E Bohanon
• Charles Breeden
• William J Hunter
• Bruce Benson
• Burton Weisbrod
• Bruce Yandle
• Roger L Faith
• Roger Congleton
• James Buchanan
• Gary Anderson
• Peter J Boettke
• Jeffrey R Clark
• Robert J Staaf

1989 Mar 13: SportsInc, the Sports-buisness Weekly published an article on "The Impact of Economics" (sports sponsorship). It includes a discussion on the use of multipliers and quotes

George Mason University professor William J. Hunter, is the author of a Heartland Institute study entitled Economic Impact Studies: Inaccurate, Misleading and Unnecccssary

1989 April 18: Susan Stuntz (Issues Manager) at the Tobacco Institute memoes her boss Sam Chilcote. She is sending him material previously used for a two-day "Gerry Long" presentation. He wants to use it in a shorter one-day (unspecified) briefing session.

[Gerald H Long was the CEO of RJ Reynolds who in 1988 had just taken over as Chairman of the Tobacco Institute's Executive Committee and wanted to make changes.]

Economists' Network 64 Strong [is] Targeted to Congressional Tax Writing Committees [and utilizing the] Production of Op-Eds on Federal Tax Policy.
[List of economists includes William Hunter]

1989 Dec 14: Jim Savarese is listing the economists taking part in their new Excise Tax Op-Ed project.

I have also listed the newspapers we plan to target and a package of the materials we are sending to the economists.

    We should start getting drafts of the op-eds around the first of the year.

1990 Jan 18: Jim Savarese has sent a draft of a new William Hunter op-ed to Carol Hyrcaj at the Tobacco Institute.

Carol;
Attached is an op-ed from William J Hunter - it looks fine.

    Jim

people with incomes less than $20,000 pay 37% of the tax while individuals with incomes over $50,000, and almost twice as much total income, pay only 13% of the tax.

Shifting "the tax burden onto the lowest incone groups through higher excise taxes, while perhaps politically expedient, can only be considered cowardly in any other context.

1990 Feb 25: Clipping of an op-ed by Hunter for the Tobacco Institute which appeared in The Milwaukee Journal "Anti-tax fervor forces politicians to regressive excise taxes." (attacking Congress and new excise proposals)

1990 Mar: The Tobacco Institute report on their activities on Excise Taxes, says:

The 1990 op-ed program involving consulting economists' articles on the excise tax and "user fee" question moved forward last month. We reviewed additional draft articles and returned them to the authors to seek placement.

    Meanwhile, the previously cleared op-eds continue to appear in print. Recently published articles include those by J.R. Clark (with placements in five different Tennessee newspapers); Ryan Amacher (the Anderson Independent-Mail); William Hunter (the Milwaukee Journal); and John David (the Charleston Gazette).

    Consulting economists sent letters to administration officials reported to be looking for ways to justify a cigarette excise tax/"user fee" connection. Many of the economists received a direct response from a Treasury Department official who appears to have backed-off from the "user fee" notion.

1990 April 30: Hunter's article has been published in The Milwaukee Journal, and so he sends a copy and a letter on Marquette University letterhead to Senator Herb Kohl, one of his designated Congressional targets He claims to be primarily concerned with getting a fair-deal for Wisconsin:

As you probably know Wisconsin falls short in its fiscal return on its federal taxes. Increased excise taxation in general and the Rostenkowski proposal in particular will only exacerbate the net outflow of tax dollars from Wisconsin.

    Federal tax and expenditure policies have made Wisconsin residents a net exporter of tax revenues and therefore have put the State at a competitive disadvantage for a very long period of time.

1990 May: This is a list of successes Savarese and Tollison claim from having their tame economists on the network plant op-ed articles on their local newspapers.

WISCONSIN
William Hunter, Marquette Univ. — Madison Capital Times

1990 May 7: The Tobacco Institute's "1991 Tax and Social Cost Plans" have sections on

• "Social Costs" Hearings Readiness (preparation for fielding witnesses at Congressional hearings.) They list here the arguments

  What TI and Its Allies Must Cover

  1. "Social cost" arguments used to justify excise tax increases, smoking restrictions and ad bans are not valid.
  2. Independent economists state that "social cost" calculations used by anti-smokers do not withstand credible economic scrutiny.
  3. There is no convincing economic evidence that smokers impose costs on society. Any supposed costs are "private costs" and are borne by the smoker.
  4. Other industries are vulnerable to social cost attacks. A "slippery slope" may exist as anti-smokers, using "social costs" arguments, seek legislation restricting smoking or increasing taxes. These efforts may signal lawmakers to regulate other products as well.

• "Tax" Hearing Readiness (as above, but for excise tax increases, State and Federal)

  What TI and Its Allies Must Cover

  1. Excise taxes are regressive and take away tax reform for low- and middle-income Americans. As a percentage of income, low income families pay as much as 27 times more in federal excises than high-income families.
  2. Cigarette excise taxes are discriminatory. They fall disproportionately on Blacks, Hispanics and other minorities.
  3. Excise taxes are unfair. Tobacco consumers are forced to pay more than others for government services benefitting everyone. Why should smokers pay more for national defense than nonsmokers?

• List of cash-for-comment network economists in each State.

WISCONSIN
Professor William Hunter
Department of Economics, Marquette University
Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53233 414-224-7377

Center for Study of Public Choice
George's Hall, George Mason University
Fairfax, Virginia 22030

1990 Aug: This long document has media tour records [being conducted by Fleishman-Hillard] for the cash-for-comments

• economists network
• ventilation network members (mainly HBI)
• biological scientists network,
• academic lawyers nework
• labor network and
• advertising academics network

William Hunter
Associate Professor of Economics, Marquette University

2/90 Excise Tax/"user fee" op-ed published in The Milwaukee Journal.

1990 Aug 3: Sam Chilcote at the Tobacco Institute has advised the Members of the Executive Committee of plans to develop a celebrity speakers program using academics and other expert consultants. There are offer the speakers both money and personal promotion:

[W]hile it is clear that there are a number of individuals who can and are speaking out on our issues independent of The Institute, there also is much more that could be done. There are, for example, opportunities to develop higher profiles for those individuals with whom we enjoy an existing relationship, and to increase within the media an awareness of their availability.

    There also are a number of individuals who have been identified who do not currently have a relationship with the industry, but whose views appear to be compatible with our own. Should the Executive Committee decide that it wants to proceed with an expansion of our speakers' program, these individuals would be contacted to determine their interest in our issues.

    The addition of new speakers to our program will be expensive. Most of these individuals command substantial consulting fees; media and other activity will require a new commitment of funds, although an exact amount cannot be determined until candidates have been approached.

• Authors, newscasters and newspaper columnists
• Well-known politicians, political aides, White House staffers, State authorities, agency administrators, etc
• Heads of various coalition groups (American Advertising Federation. etc)
• Cash-for-comments legal and business academics from Savarese's network list.
• Cash-for-comments 'risk assessment' academics and promoter.
• Cash-for-comment experts in indoor air pollution and ventilation systems.
• Cash-for-comment academic economists + some likely allies:

  • BRUCE L. BENSON, professor of economics, Florida State University and board member, James Madison Institute, a Tallahassee think tank.
  • DWIGHT R. LEE, professor of economics, holder of the Ramsey Chair of Private Enterprise, University of Georgia
  • JAMES C. MILLER, Citizens for a Sound Economy Foundation, Washington; former director of OMB
  • WALTER E. WILLIAMS, professor of economics, George Mason
        University, Fairfax, Va.
  • BOB TOLLISON, George Mason University, Center for the Study of Public Choice

• Some more minor network academics, together with their recent achievements.

William Hunter
Associate Professor of Economics
Marquette University

2/90 Excise Tax/"user fee" op-ed published in The Milwaukee Journal

1990 Oct: /E Tobacco Institute document. It lists the services that academics and secret consultants have provided to the tobacco industry during 1989 and 1990 — both as witnesses and as authors of articles and letters.

• Pages 2 - 9     Advertising: lawyers and advertising administrators
• Pages 10 - 30 Science and Public Policy on ETS/IAQ
• Pages 31 - 39  Taxation
  This gives the dates of each of the services, and any 'Current Projects' they may be working on:

William Hunter
Associate Professor of Economics, Marquette University

• 2/90 Excise Tax/"user fee" op-ed published in The Milwaukee Journal

See page 32-5

[TI budget papers show that each op-ed still earned the economists $3,000. Presentations to conferences earned them $5,000. Savarese was paid $70,000 to $100,000 pa for this project, and Ogilvy & Mather $250,000.]

See page 5
[The date of his article is probably a mis-type. It is more likely to be May]

1991: A list of useful consultants and witnesses held in the B&W files, carried many entries which show lists of past activities for the Tobacco Institute, which were effectively credentials showing that they could be trusted.

William Hunter
Associate Professor of Economics Marquette University
  •   2/90 Excise Tax/"user fee" op-ed published in The Milwaukee Journal

1991 Feb: He had written an op-ed for the Tobacco Insittute, and they advised Regional Directors that he was now available for consultation

5/90 Excise Tax/"user fee" op-ed published in Milwaukee Journal

1993 Mar 23: Jim Savarese is proposing to Cal George at the Tobacco Institute a new Op-ed program.

Outlined below is our proposed op-ed program in opposition to the use of excise taxes to finance health care.

1. Op-ed article by Robert Tollison to be submitted to Wall Street Journal $ 4,000.00
   
   
2. Rebuttal article by Bob Ekelund, Auburn University, to be submitted to the Birmingham News $ 3,000.00
   
   
3. "Monster" tax op-ed project using twenty economists (list attached) to submit articles in opposition to using excise taxes on cigarettes to finance health care reform - to be submitted to twenty newspapers in twenty different states $60,000.00
   
   TOTAL $67,000.00

1993 May: William Hunter has used "the dog ate my homework" excuse about his article for the "Monster Tax Op-Ed Project." Savarese's report to the Tobacco Institute says

WISCONSIN
Prof. William Hunter
Department of Economics , Marquette University,
Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53233
      Op-ed lost in mail - just received - will send week of 5-24-93

1993 Aug 2: William Hunter's "In My Opinion" column, is published in The Milwaukee Journal. It carries the heading "Clinton's 'modest' tax plans to take heavy toll in Wisconsin"guaranteeed to appeal to the local jingoists and Republicans.

Taxes that have been considered by the Clinton administration include not just higher levies on the very wealthy, but also excise taxes on alcohol, tobacco, gasoline and a tax on energy (BTU). The intent of income tax increases is to restore "fairness" to the tax system by placing greater burdens on the rich.

    No such claim can be made for excise taxes, which place the greatest burden on the poor and middle class, and therefore would fall heavily on the residents of Wisconsin.

If Clinton is sincere in his desire to raise taxes fairly, then he needs to abandon excise taxes, despite their potential political benefits.

1993 Aug 3: This is a series of lists of activities conducted by Savarese & Associates in running the economist's nework, dating from Mar 23 1993 until August. Savarese's staff have sent these to the Tobacco Institute as progressive reports on problems, and their successes in having op-ed pieces published.

    Note that the articles are often being revised by Jim Savarese, then checked by Calvin George at the Tobacco Institute, then cleared by the tobacco lawyers, before being returned to the economist for onward transmission to the newspaper. These are not 'independent' opinion articles, but tobacco-industry shaped and highly manipulated propaganda.

• Mar 23 Successfully planted article with Milwaukee Journal
• Apr 9 Nothing recorded
• May 12 (Monster Tax article) — nothing recorded
• May 18 "Op-ed lost in mail, just received — will send week of 5/24/93"
• June 2 "Received 6/1/93. Sent to Cal 6/1/93"
• June 14 "Submitted to Milwukee Journal. Returned/Cal 6/4/93"
• Aug 3 (Monster Tax op-ed) "Forthcoming. Milwakee Journal called 7/27 will be published shortly"

1994 March 16: A group of academic economists including almost all the members of the Tobacco Institute's cash-for-comments network sent an "An Open Letter to President Clinton on Healthcare Reform." This had been organised by David J Theroux, the founder and operator of the Independent Institute apparently with the assistance of an academic network member, Simon Rottenberg. [The institute was well-funded by the tobacco industry]. They say:

In The Open Letter to President Clinton, 565 economists and 76 other scholars from all 50 states and the District of Columbia state their firm opposition to any form of direct and indirect price controls in any healthcare program.

    Rationing Health Care: The New Threat of Price Controls, by Simon Rottenberg and David J. Theroux

In countries that have imposed these types of regulations, patients face delays of months and years for surgery, government bureaucrats decide treatment options instead of doctors or patients, and innovations in medical techniques and pharmaceuticals are dramatically reduced.

1995: Report of the Heartland Institute says:

A Wisconsin chapter of The Heartland Institute was launched in February by businessman Franklin Buchta and Marquette University professors Charles Breeden, Gene Smiley , and William Hunter.

    Heartland Wisconsin hosted its first meeting in May at the Wisconsin Club in Milwaukee and, that same month, hosted a successful briefing for state legislators in Madison. In November, Mark Greenfield signed on as executive director of Heartland Wisconsin.

Meanwhile, Heartland was publishing Perspectives (20 of them this year), hosting events, and participating in public debates in other ways. James Johnston helped deflate a movement to municipalize Chicago's electric utility, William Hunter challenged Wisconsin's prevailing wage laws, and Herbert Walberg demonstrated how small school districts outperform large ones.

Joseph Bast was named one of the "88 People to Watch in 1988" by the Chicago Tribune. [His wife Diane was the Publications Director of the Institute]

1995 Nov: /E William Hunter's old Marquette University associate Charles Breeden appears to have come back into the network to work on the FDA project.

An extensive economist op-ed program was implemented to focus media attention on the FDA's agenda. The program attacks the FDA proposal from an anti-big government, anti-regulatory perspective. Targeting key Congressional districts.

    Economists prepared and submitted op-eds for publication to major newspapers in select states:
      Dr Charles Breeden, Marquette University

2002 Aug 28: Hunter is listed as a Policy Advisor to the Heartland Institute while still at Marquette University, Milwaukee, WI

2010 Sept 24: Hunter is now Director, National Institute on Consumer Credit Management (NICCM), Marquette University, College of Busines Administration.

2013: NICCM will move to Atlanta for 2013

Marquette's long-time director Dr Bill Hunter retires On June 4, 2012, 67 financial managers, representing 18 corporations in the consumer finance industry, arrived at Marquette University for the final installment of the National Institute on Consumer Credit Management. Established in 1950, NICCM has trained some of the industry's most prominent leaders.

    Dr William Hunter, professor of finance and director of NICCM, has more than 30 years' experience in the finance industry and has shared his expertise with the institute for the past 20 years. We would like to thank Dr Hunter for his years of service, as well as the professional instructors and board members who have contributed to NICCM's success at Marquette.

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