U.S. State and Local Issues

Spending on Tobacco Prevention: Maryland

Last updated December 04, 2012

  FY2013 FY2012
State Rank 34 32
State Spending on Tobacco Prevention $4.2 million $4.3 million
% of CDC Recommended Spending
($63.3 million)		 6.6% 6.8%

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 $4.2 million a year for tobacco prevention and cessation.  This is 6.6% of the CDC’s recommendation and ranks Maryland 34th among the states in the funding of tobacco prevention programs.  Maryland’s spending on tobacco prevention amounts to 0.7% of the estimated $555 million in tobacco-generated revenue the state collects each year from settlement payments and tobacco taxes.

Background and Recent Developments: Maryland’s state funding for tobacco prevention and cessation is $4.2 million for FY2013. Although this is a small decrease from the $4.3 million spent in FY2012, it marks the continuation of a discouraging trend of funding cuts in recent years—down from $5.5 million in FY2010 and $19.6 million in FY2009.

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

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 that reduced the required minimum level of tobacco prevention funding to $6 million through FY2012. That same budget language increased the minimum funding requirement to $10 million in FY2013, but with only $4.2 million in state funds budgeted for this fiscal year, Maryland falls far short of meeting that requirement.

In addition, Maryland is receiving $2.3 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 2012 (from annual appropriations).

  • $352,932 from the Prevention and Public Health Fund in the new health care reform law for the period beginning August 1, 2012. 

  • $752,326 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.