Summary: The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends that Maryland spend $63.3 million a year to have an effective, comprehensive tobacco prevention program.  Maryland currently receives $20.6 million a year for tobacco prevention and cessation, which includes both state and federal funds.  This is 32.5% of the CDC's recommendation and ranks Maryland 18th among the states in the funding of tobacco prevention programs.  Maryland's spending on tobacco prevention amounts to 3.5% of the estimated $586 million in tobacco-generated revenue the state collects each year from settlement payments and tobacco taxes.

Recent Developments: Maryland's tobacco settlement payments are folded into the state's Cigarette Restitution Fund (CRF) and allocated through the annual budget process. For FY2009, the Legislature passed a budget that included $19.6 million for tobacco prevention, an increase from the $18.4 million budgeted in FY2008. For FY2009, Maryland will receive $20.6 million in federal and state funds for tobacco prevention programs.

In November 2007, during a special legislative session called by Governor O'Malley to resolve the state's budget deficit, the Legislature approved and the Governor signed into law a $1 per pack increase in the cigarette tax, bringing Maryland's cigarette tax to $2 per pack beginning January 1, 2008.  However none of these funds were earmarked for tobacco prevention.