U.S. State and Local Issues

Spending on Tobacco Prevention: Virginia

Last updated December 05, 2012

Summary: The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends that Virginia spend $103.2 million a year to have an effective, comprehensive tobacco prevention program.  Virginia currently allocates $8.4 million a year for tobacco prevention and cessation.  This is 8.1% of the CDC’s recommendation and ranks Virginia 31st among the states in the funding of tobacco prevention programs.  Virginia’s spending on tobacco prevention amounts to 2.5% of the estimated $336 million in tobacco-generated revenue the state collects each year from settlement payments and tobacco taxes.

Background and Recent Developments: Virginia’s total state funding for tobacco prevention and cessation programs is $8.4 million in FY2013. This is consistent with the amount spent in FY2012, but marks a decrease from past years.

For several years, Virginia allocated 50 percent of its tobacco settlement funds to a trust fund for economic assistance for tobacco farmers and their communities, 10 percent to the Virginia Tobacco Settlement Foundation (VTSF) for youth tobacco prevention and cessation, and the remaining 40 percent to the General Fund.  In 2004, the state began allocating that 40 percent to the Virginia Health Care Trust Fund for the state’s Medicaid program, instead of to the general fund. 

In 2009, the VTSF was changed to the Virginia Foundation for Healthy Youth (VFHY) and was charged with combating childhood obesity, as well as tobacco prevention. As of FY2011, the VFHY is requiredto spend $1 million of its funding on obesity prevention. The legislature also reduced the Foundation’s allocation by 1.5 percentage points in FY2011, moving those funds to the Virginia Health Care Trust Fund. As a result, funding for the Health Care Trust Fund has increased to 41.5 percent and funding for tobacco farmers and their communities has remained at 50 percent, but the VFHY is now required to address both tobacco and obesity prevention with even less money than before—just 8.5 percent of tobacco settlement funds.

In addition, Virginia is receiving $3.0 million in federal funds dedicated to tobacco prevention and control:

• $1.0 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).

• $596,667 from the Prevention and Public Health Fund in the new health care reform law for the period beginning August 1, 2012. 

• $1.4 million 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.