Summary: The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends that Virginia spend $103.2 million a year to have an effective, comprehensive tobacco prevention program.  Virginia currently receives $13.6 million a year for tobacco prevention and cessation, which includes both state and federal funds.  This is 13.2% of the CDC's recommendation and ranks Virginia 36th among the states in the funding of tobacco prevention programs.  Virginia's spending on tobacco prevention amounts to 4.4% of the estimated $310 million in tobacco-generated revenue the state collects each year from settlement payments and tobacco taxes.

Recent Developments: In 1999, the Virginia Legislature passed and then-Governor Jim Gilmore (R) enacted the law that allocated the state's tobacco settlement payments into three separate funds: 50 percent to the Tobacco Indemnification and Community Revitalization Trust Fund for programs aimed at economic assistance for tobacco growers and to revitalize tobacco dependent communities; 40 percent to the state's general fund for appropriation at the discretion of the Legislature; and 10 percent to the Virginia Tobacco Settlement Fund for tobacco prevention and cessation programs for youth.

For FY2009, Virginia will receive $13.6 million in federal and state funds for tobacco prevention.  In FY2008, Virginia spent less than was allocated due to money withheld because of an escrow payment dispute as well as $625,000 that was redirected to the Virginia Healthcare Trust Fund in April of 2008. Thus, the state will be spending about the same amount in FY2009 as it was in FY2008.