U.S. State and Local Issues

Spending on Tobacco Prevention: Virginia

Last updated November 29, 2011

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 30th among the states in the funding of tobacco prevention programs.  Virginia’s spending on tobacco prevention amounts to 2.8% of the estimated $299 million in tobacco-generated revenue the state collects each year from settlement payments and tobacco taxes.

Recent Developments: Over the past several years, Virginia’s commitment to tobacco prevention funding has decreased.  For several years, the state 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% to the Virginia Healthcare 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. Starting in FY 2011, the VFHF is required to spend $1 million of its funding on obesity prevention. Furthermore, the legislature reduced the Foundation’s allocation by 1.5 percentage points last year, moving those funds to the Virginia Health Care Trust Fund. As a result, while funding for the Health Care Trust Fund has increased to 41.5 percent and funding for tobacco farmers and their communities has remained level at 50 percent, the VFHY is required to address both tobacco and obesity prevention with less money.  As a result of these policy changes, total state funding for tobacco prevention in Virginia will be $8.4 million in FY2012.

In addition, Virginia is receiving $2.5 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 2011 (from annual appropriations).

• $128,289 from the Prevention and Public Health Fund in the new health care reform law.

• $1.4 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.