From Deseret News archives:

Huntsman may never face a conflict on cancer center

Published: Monday, May 9, 2005 10:42 p.m. MDT
 |  E-MAIL | PRINT | FONT + - 
When running for office a year ago, then-gubernatorial candidate Jon Huntsman Jr. said if he found himself as governor sitting in a meeting setting state budget priorities and the topic of the Huntsman Cancer Institute came up, he'd just leave the room to avoid a conflict of interest.

At least in his first round of state budget-setting this year, now-Gov. Huntsman has not had to walk out the door.

And because of legislative changes in how the state's tobacco settlement funds (which aid the Huntsman cancer-fighting institutions) are allocated — a change that occurred before Huntsman became governor — he may remain seated through such conversations for some time — perhaps never.

Huntsman told the Deseret Morning News last June that should funding for the Huntsman Cancer Institute or Hospital come up in his office, "I'd just step out of the room and let Lt. Gov. Gary Herbert handle it. I'd just not get involved."

That's because his family has long been a benefactor of the institute and hospital, located on the University of Utah campus and partly funded by the state.

"The issue (of Huntsman Cancer Institute and Hospital funding) has not come up, either in a meeting before (he was sworn in) or since he's been governor," said Huntsman spokeswoman Tammy Kikuchi. "And so he has not had to excuse himself from any meeting."

Story continues below
Before becoming a trade ambassador for President Bush in 2001, Gov. Huntsman served as president of the Huntsman Cancer Foundation, the family's charitable organization, which has taken on the job of raising tens of millions of dollars for the cancer institute and hospital. The Huntsmans have pledged more than $200 million of their own money for the cancer-fighting facilities.

In January, Jon Huntsman Sr., founder of the family's billion-dollar chemical empire, started selling off his personal stock in Huntsman LLC, the largest privately held petro-chemicals firm in the world, so he could funnel more personal funds to a variety of charities.

In that family foundation job, both Huntsmans personally lobbied the Utah Legislature to provide funds to help the institute and hospital.

In turn, the Legislature allocated state funds to the cancer-fighting operations at the U. Medical Center.

Each year the institute gets about $1.5 million for cancer research from the state's cigarette tax.

The hospital, which opened in June 2004, gets $4 million from the state's tobacco settlement money. The funds are funneled through the U. to help pay off $100 million in bonds issued to build and equip the state-of-the-art facility.

Comments

You can be the first to comment on this story.

Image
Deseret Morning News graphic

previousnext

Latest comments

I agree with Louise: “…it is the right and duty of all people to...

So, what percentage of the total cocaine in the US was that, and will it, or...

Celtics crush Jazz

Thanks for the memories but it is time to hang it up. The Jazz are loyal to...

Lou Dobbs resigns from CNN

Good luck, Lou. You deserve better than CNN and their slanted views of...

Celtics crush Jazz

Boozer is not the problem if you look at Okur. The return of Korver, and CJ...

I was very interested in Ms. Stoner's comments. I thought she expressed...

Celtics crush Jazz

they lost given that awesome D Boozer was playing. Seriously, all you Boozer...

Cougars practice with urgency

We are having good practices now and we are having fun playing football. ...

I love how they are trying to directly copy the Spectrum. You can try, but...

Have you seen the changes to US bankruptcy law that were passed a few years...

Advertisements
Advertisement