U.S. State and Local Issues

Spending on Tobacco Prevention: Utah

Last updated December 05, 2012

  FY2013 FY2012
State Rank 15 12
State Spending on Tobacco Prevention $7 million $7.2 million
% of CDC Recommended Spending
($23.6 million)		 29.8% 30.4%

Summary: The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends that Utah spend $23.6 million a year to have an effective, comprehensive tobacco prevention program.  Utah currently allocates $7.0 million a year for tobacco prevention and cessation.  This is 29.8% of the CDC’s recommendation and ranks Utah 15th among the states in the funding of tobacco prevention programs.  Utah’s spending on tobacco prevention amounts to 4.6% of the estimated $153 million in tobacco-generated revenue the state collects each year from settlement payments and tobacco taxes.

Background and Recent Developments: Utah’s tobacco settlement money is governed by a 2000 law that placed a portion of the state’s annual payments into an endowment and gave the legislature the authority to appropriate the remaining half through the annual budgets. The law also called for a referendum in which voters would decide how to spend interest earned from the endowment. In November 2000, voters approved a measure that reinvested half the interest generated by the endowment and earmarked the remainder for health care programs.

In FY2013, the legislature and Governor Gary Herbert (R) allocated $7.0 million in state funds for the state’s tobacco prevention program, slightly less than the amount allocated in FY2012.  Funding has remained relatively constant in recent years, though it continues to be lower than the CDC-recommended amount.

The state is receiving more tobacco-generated revenue than ever before a result of a $1.005 per pack cigarette tax increase, to $1.70 per pack, and increases in the tax rates on other tobacco products, enacted on July 1, 2010. Nonetheless, Utah spends less than the CDC-recommended amount on tobacco prevention and cessation.

In addition, Utah is receiving $1.6 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).

  • $90,520 from the Prevention and Public Health Fund in the new health care reform law for the period beginning August 1, 2012. 

  • $280,466 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.