Summary: The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends that Nevada spend $32.5 million a year to have an effective, comprehensive tobacco prevention program.  Nevada currently receives $4.1 million a year for tobacco prevention and cessation, which includes both state and federal funds.  This is 12.6% of the CDC's recommendation and ranks Nevada 37th among the states in the funding of tobacco prevention programs.  Nevada's spending on tobacco prevention amounts to 2.3% of the estimated $178 million in tobacco-generated revenue the state collects each year from settlement payments and tobacco taxes.

Recent Developments: Nevada's program is funded entirely through settlement payments, so funding levels could change if the actual settlement payments are different than projected.  A 1999 state law divided Nevada's settlement money into three trust funds: 40 percent to the Millennium Trust Fund for college scholarships; 10 percent to the Trust Fund for Public Health; and 50 percent to the Fund for a Healthy Nevada. The Legislature is responsible for appropriating the money available from the funds through the biennial budget process. Initially, twenty percent (10 percent of the total settlement payments) of the money directed to the Fund for a Healthy Nevada was distributed to the tobacco prevention and cessation program; however, in 2007, this allocation was reduced to fifteen percent.

Combined with funds from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, total spending on tobacco prevention in FY2009 will be $4.1 million.