U.S. State and Local Issues

Spending on Tobacco Prevention: Maryland

Last updated November 29, 2011

Summary: The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends that Maryland spend $63.3 million a year to have an effective, comprehensive tobacco prevention program.  Maryland currently allocates $4.3 million a year for tobacco prevention and cessation.  This is 6.8% of the CDC’s recommendation and ranks Maryland 32nd among the states in the funding of tobacco prevention programs.  Maryland’s spending on tobacco prevention amounts to 0.8% of the estimated $550 million in tobacco-generated revenue the state collects each year from settlement payments and tobacco taxes.

Recent Developments: Maryland’s tobacco settlement payments are folded into the state’s Cigarette Restitution Fund (CRF) and allocated through the annual budget process.

In November 2007, during a special legislative session called by Governor O’Malley to resolve the state’s budget deficit, the legislature approved and the governor signed into law a $1.00 per pack increase in the cigarette tax, bringing Maryland’s cigarette tax to $2.00 per pack beginning January 1, 2008.  However, none of these funds were earmarked for tobacco prevention.

Previously, state law required that a minimum of $21 million be spent annually from state and federal funds on tobacco prevention and cessation. In 2010, the governor proposed and the legislature approved budget language reducing the required minimum level of tobacco prevention funding to $6 million through FY2012. In FY2013, the minimum required increases to $10 million.

State funding for tobacco prevention and cessation is $4.3 million for FY2012. This is close to what was spent in FY2011, though less than the $5.5 million that was allocated in FY2010, and substantially less than the $19.6 million that was allocated in FY2009. Unless program funding is increased to CDC-recommended levels, Maryland’s historic 32 percent drop in smoking over the past twelve years, which is double the national average, could be reversed. 

In addition, Maryland is receiving $2.0 million in federal funds dedicated to tobacco prevention and control:

• $1.2 million from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in a 12-month grant for the period beginning April 2011 (from annual appropriations).

• $112,377 from the Prevention and Public Health Fund in the new health care reform law. 

• $716,501 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.