you can use magento registry for setting and getting values as:
set a value (in controller)
Mage::register('var_name',$var_value);
get a value (in phtml/view)
$var_value = Mage::registry('var_name');
more you can find at
http://alanstorm.com/magento_registry_singleton_tutorial
https://stackoverflow.com/a/18157176/725306