A Watchdog for the Settlement Fund

Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids issues timely reports on the progress of the Tobacco Settlement fund and how the money is being used. I am enormously relieved that this is the case and will be following this organization closely and benefiting from its reports.

As of the end of last year the Campaign issued the following statement:

...[W]while the states have modestly increased total funding for tobacco prevention and cessation programs, the vast majority of states are still failing to keep the promise of the tobacco settlement and falling far short of funding such programs at even minimum levels recommended by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Specifically, here's where we're stacked...

Idaho...The state received $73.2 million total from the tobacco industry in fiscal year 2007, including taxes on tobacco sales as well as settlement funds. The Centers for Disease Control recommended that we spend at least $11.04 million last year on tobacco prevention. We managed to scrape up a budget for $908,000 last year, which was a significant improvement over the previous year when tobacco prevention funds were cut by the legislature to just $544,000 from the previous year's (2005) total of $1.9 million.

Make no mistake about it. We are spending pennies instead of dollars in helping to keep our kids from death by tobacco. We're not alone. As a matter of fact, only three of the fifty states are spending the minimum amount recommended by the CDC: Maine, Delaware, Colorado.

At the other extreme, five states--Michigan, Missouri, Mississippi, New Hampshire, and Tennessee--manage to squeeze $0.00 from the fund that was set up to help prevent the use of tobacco by youngsters and adolescent.

Idaho floats along at #39 out of 50 states in terms of compliance. Not to worry. The spending rules were set up for loose translation and implementation.

How We Spend Earmarked Money

Here's how some of our states are spending the money earmarked to help educate youngsters about the perils of smoking and make decisions not to smoke. The 1998 legal settlement allocated millions of dollars to the states for this purpose, but few strings were attached, and enforcement wasn't even breathed. So here's what's happening...

Humboldt County, California, received $1.3 million and spent $0 on smoking prevention but gave the money to a project to improve health care in jails.

Pisgah High School, North Carolina, received a $250,000 grant from the tobacco settlement to buy computer-operated lathes and mills.

The State of Ohio has its top officials glowing after receiving a $5 billion payment for selling tobacco bonds.

In Washington DC council members voted to spend $116 million in tobacco settlement funds on a project to sell and rehabilitate a collapsing hospital in the city.

Connecticut decided to spend $1.7 million in tobacco settlement cash on various medical research projects, none of them related to tobacco.

Pennsylvania gives details for spending the $424.4 million it will receive from the Tobacco Settlement Fund in 2007-08 and reports that 12 percent will be spent on tobacco use prevention and cessation. The rest, as allowed by the fund, goes to various health-related programs including health investment research (30%) and health research (19%).

That's only the tip of the iceberg.