U.S. State and Local Issues

Spending on Tobacco Prevention: Rhode Island

Last updated November 29, 2011

  FY2012 FY2011
State Rank 38 38
State Spending on Tobacco Prevention $372,665 $735,095
% of CDC Recommended Spending
($15.2 million)		 2.5% 4.8%

Summary: The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends that Rhode Island spend $15.2 million a year to have an effective, comprehensive tobacco prevention program.  Rhode Island currently allocates $372,665 a year for tobacco prevention and cessation.  This is 2.5% of the CDC’s recommendation and ranks Rhode Island 38th among the states in the funding of tobacco prevention programs. Rhode Island’s spending on tobacco prevention amounts to 0.2% of the estimated $183 million in tobacco-generated revenue the state collects each year from settlement payments and tobacco taxes.

Recent Developments: The Rhode Island tobacco prevention and cessation program is funded entirely through the state’s general fund.  In 2002, the state approved a plan to sell, or securitize, the state’s rights to $1.19 billion in future tobacco settlement payments, for a smaller, one-time payment of $600 million. The funds were used to address budget shortfalls and pay capital and operating expenses in FY2002-FY2004. Securitization left Rhode Island with no tobacco settlement funding available for tobacco prevention and other purposes after FY2004. 

In FY2012, the state allocated $372,665 for the state tobacco prevention and cessation program, nearly 50 percent less than the amount allocated in FY2011.

Rhode Island is spending less than the CDC-recommended amount on tobacco prevention, despite the fact that the state is receiving more tobacco-generated revenue than ever before as a result of increases in its tobacco taxes enacted in 2009, which brought the state’s cigarette tax to $3.46 a pack from $2.46, its tax rate other tobacco products other than moist snuff to 80 percent of the wholesale price.  

In addition, Rhode Island is receiving $1.8 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 2011 (from annual appropriations).

  • $78,510 from the Prevention and Public Health Fund in the new health care reform law. 

  • $620,377 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.