U.S. State and Local Issues

Spending on Tobacco Prevention: Arkansas

Last updated December 03, 2012

  FY2013 FY2012
State Rank 6 17
State Spending on Tobacco Prevention $17.8 million $7.4 million
% of CDC Recommended Spending
($36.4 million)		 48.9% 20.5%

Summary: The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends that Arkansas spend $36.4 million a year to have an effective, comprehensive tobacco prevention program.  Arkansas currently allocates $17.8 million a year for tobacco prevention and cessation.  This is 48.9% of the CDC’s recommendation and ranks Arkansas 6th among the states in the funding of tobacco prevention programs.  Arkansas’s spending on tobacco prevention amounts to 6.0% of the estimated $296 million in tobacco-generated revenue the state collects each year from settlement payments and tobacco taxes.

Background and Recent Developments: Arkansas’s tobacco settlement funds are governed by a ballot initiative approved by voters in November 2000 that allocated 31.6 percent of the state’s tobacco settlement funds to tobacco prevention and cessation programs.  Arkansas’s total state spending on tobacco prevention and cessation for FY2013 is $17.8 million.  

In addition, Arkansas is receiving $2.2 million in federal funds dedicated to tobacco prevention and control:

  • $1.1 million from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in a 12-month grant for the period beginning April 2012 (from annual appropriations).

  • $264,440 from the Prevention and Public Health Fund in the new health care reform law for the period beginning August 1, 2012. 

  • $821,149 from the Food and Drug Administration for enforcement of the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, including the provision regarding tobacco sales to minors.