Summary: The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends that Texas spend $266.3 million a year to have an effective, comprehensive tobacco prevention program.  Texas currently receives $12.6 million a year for tobacco prevention and cessation, which includes both state and federal funds.  This is 4.7% of the CDC's recommendation and ranks Texas 46th among the states in the funding of tobacco prevention programs.  Texas's spending on tobacco prevention amounts to 0.6% of the estimated $2.06 billion in tobacco-generated revenue the state collects each year from settlement payments and tobacco taxes.

Recent Developments: The initial tobacco settlement funds received by Texas are governed by a 1999 law which placed all the tobacco settlement payments into several permanent endowments earmarked for the following purposes: higher education, children and public health, emergency medical services and trauma care, a higher education nursing and allied health fund, minority health research and education, rural health facility capital improvement, community hospital capital improvement, and individual endowments for 13 medical schools. As Texas receives new funds as part of their settlement with the tobacco industry, they are appropriated by the legislature on a biennial basis.

The biannual state budget for FY2008 and FY2009 approved by the Legislature and signed by Governor Rick Perry (R) appropriated $23.6 million, or $11.8 million per year to tobacco prevention. The budget allocates $7.8 million for comprehensive tobacco programs, $3.0 million for school-based programs, and $1.0 million for spit tobacco programs per year.  For FY2009, Texas will receive a total of $12.6 million in federal and state funds for tobacco prevention programs.