Making Iowa the healthiest state in the nation is an excellent goal, and Gov. Terry Branstad is to be commended for setting it and promoting it.

Still, it’s one thing to suggest that every Iowan go outdoors on a given day and take a walk. That doesn’t cost anything. That’s like encouraging world peace by setting aside 30 minutes when everyone is asked not to pull a trigger, or at least not to aim very carefully.

When it comes to spending money, that’s when you find out what people really think. Take smoking, for example.

Once again this year, $294 million fell out of the sky and into Iowa’s lap, wrung out of the tobacco companies because their products fall into that odd category of being legal but kind of deadly. Those dollars go into the state’s general fund. How much money was spent on dissuading citizens from smoking? An amount equal to 1.1 percent of that $294 million, according to a coalition of anti-smoking groups.

One percent is an impressive number if you’re talking about body fat. In this case, it makes you think we’re hardly interested in the no-smoking topic at all.

According to a recent report, Iowa “spends $3.3 million a year on tobacco prevention and cessation programs, which is 9 percent of the $36.7 million recommended by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.”

Not that a CDC recommendation carries the weight of a general’s command, but that’s not much of a percentage, either. Tell the boss that you’re behind him or her 9 percent and see what happens next.

Times are hard everywhere, so it’s not all that surprising that the 2011 Iowa Legislature cut funding for tobacco use prevention again, continuing a trend.

Considering the governor’s interest in our health, however, it’s surprising that the level has dropped so low. It’s downright perplexing that the Tobacco Prevention and Control Commission appears to be headed for oblivion.

Several vacancies exist on the commission, and appointments to those seats are to be made by the governor. However, “we have heard from the governor’s office that the commission is going away,” said Chairman Cathy Callaway, “so no appointments will be made.”

Meanwhile, Division of Tobacco Use Prevention and Control Director Bonnie Mapes either took early retirement last summer or was eased out by Iowa Department of Public Health Director Mariannette Miller-Meeks.

“The information that came around was that Miller-Meeks intended to fold the directorship of that division in with someone else’s other duties,” said Herman Quirmbach, a Democratic state senator from Ames. “But the Iowa Code says no, the head of that division has to be a full-time job.”

Aaron Swanson was named the interim director of the tobacco division and remains in the post.

“I intend to resist any effort to diminish the status of the tobacco division within the Department of Public Health,” Quirmbach said. “It’s probably the single largest preventable cause of death.” Putting less emphasis on “stop smoking” efforts strikes him as being “contrary to Branstad’s stated goal of making Iowa the healthiest state.”

Seems like it, doesn’t it?

The most attention-grabbing part of those efforts was the JEL (Just Eliminate Lies) campaign. That was the one that was audacious enough to talk about things like suffering and untimely death. That program is over.

After the latest budget cut, the tobacco division hasn’t had enough money to run statewide campaigns such as JEL, according to Swanson.

Oh, well, maybe we can become the healthiest state in the nation without making a big deal about smoking. Maybe we all can go for a walk twice a year instead of just once.