Summary: The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends that Florida spend $210.9 million a year to have an effective, comprehensive tobacco prevention program.  Florida currently receives $60.2 million a year for tobacco prevention and cessation, which includes both state and federal funds.  This is 28.5% of the CDC's recommendation and ranks Florida 22nd among the states in the funding of tobacco prevention programs.  Florida's spending on tobacco prevention amounts to 7.3% of the estimated $820 million in tobacco-generated revenue the state collects each year from settlement payments and tobacco taxes.

Recent Developments: Florida's tobacco settlement payments initially were governed by a 1999 law, which allocated the payments to several trust funds, the largest being the Lawton Chiles Endowment Fund for Children and the Elderly. During the program's first full year, $70 million were provided for tobacco prevention under then-Governor Lawton Chiles (D). After the first four years of the program, between 1998 and 2002, Florida reduced youth smoking rates by 50 percent among middle school students and 35 percent among high school students, according to the Florida Department of Health. Despite its success at reducing youth smoking, funding for the tobacco prevention program came under attack every year. The cuts made to the initial program seriously reduced the effectiveness of the Florida Tobacco Control Program, which was once considered a national model. To restore funding for tobacco prevention, a coalition of public health organizations called Floridians for Youth Tobacco Education gathered signatures to place a state constitutional amendment on the November 2006 ballot. The amendment passed with 61 percent of the vote and requires Florida to spend 15 percent of its annual tobacco settlement revenue on tobacco prevention programs. For FY2009, Florida will receive $60.2 million in federal and state funds for tobacco prevention programs, a slight increase from the amount that was spent in FY2008.