States’ spending on tobacco prevention for 2013 will total $459.5 million, or 1.8% of the $25.7 billion they will receive in revenue from tobacco taxes and the 1998 tobacco settlement, according to a report from the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids.
The revenue collected is the largest for a single fiscal year, while the amount spent is the second lowest since states started to receive tobacco settlement funds in 1999, the report noted.
Since 2001, the annual tobacco-related revenue collected by the states has gone up by almost 49%, but spending on tobacco prevention and cessation programs has dropped by nearly 37%, according to the report, which was also sponsored by the American Heart Association, the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, the American Lung Association, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and Americans for Nonsmokers’ Rights.
