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U.S. State and Local Issues

A Broken Promise to Our Children

The 1998 State Tobacco Settlement 13 Years Later

Since the November 1998 multi-state tobacco settlement, we have issued annual reports assessing whether the states are keeping their promise to use a significant portion of their settlement funds — estimated at $246 billion over the first 25 years — to attack the enormous public health problems posed by tobacco use in the United States.

Our latest report, issued November 30, 2011, finds that the states have cut funding for tobacco prevention and cessation programs to the lowest level since 1999, when they first received tobacco settlement funds.

The states this year (Fiscal Year 2012) will collect $25.6 billion in revenue from the tobacco settlement and tobacco taxes, but will spend only 1.8 percent of it — $456.7 million — on programs to prevent kids from smoking and help smokers quit. This means the states are spending less than two cents of every dollar in tobacco revenue to fight tobacco use.

The states have cut funding for such programs by 12 percent ($61.2 million) in the past year and by 36 percent ($260.5 million) in the past four years.

This report is issued by the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, American Heart Association, American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, American Lung Association, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and Americans for Nonsmokers’ Rights.

Other key findings of this report include:

• Most states are falling short of funding levels for tobacco prevention programs recommended by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.  The $456.7 million the states have budgeted amounts to just 12.4 percent of the $3.7 billion the CDC recommends for all the states combined.

• Only two states — Alaska and North Dakota — currently fund tobacco prevention programs at CDC-recommended levels.  Only four other states provide even half the recommended funding, while 33 states and DC provide less than a quarter.  Four states — Connecticut, Nevada, New Hampshire and Ohio — and DC provide zero state funds for tobacco prevention this year.

• Tobacco companies spend nearly $23 to market tobacco products for every $1 the states spend to fight tobacco use.  According to the latest data from the Federal Trade Commission, tobacco companies spend $10.5 billion a year on marketing.

The report comes as recent surveys have found that smoking declines in the United States have slowed.  To continue reducing tobacco use, elected officials at all levels must redouble efforts to implement proven strategies. That includes using more tobacco money to fund tobacco prevention programs.

 

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