State to receive $60 million in tobacco settlement funds

Arkansas will receive more than $60 million this year from the master settlement agreement with tobacco companies.

Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge announced Monday that she had secured the 2022 proceeds from the agreement. The 2022 disbursement of $60,920,499.60 brings the total amount received by Arkansas since 2001 to $1,282,103, 401.13.

The money goes toward funding various public health programs within the state.

“Tobacco companies are paying into this settlement for engaging in bad business practices by misleading the public on the dangers of tobacco,” Rutledge said in a news release. “These funds will be used for healthcare research and other vital programs impacting Arkansas children and families.”

The multibillion dollar agreement was signed in 1998 by 46 states to settle consumer protection lawsuits for health and social costs incurred by Americans for smoking. The agreement imposed health-related and advertising restrictions on tobacco companies, and requires the settling manufactures to make annual payments to the states that settled.

In 2000, Arkansas voters created the Tobacco Settlement Act, which governs how the settlement funds are used. Payments are placed into the Tobacco Settlement Program Fund for distribution to the programs supported by the settlement payments, including the Arkansas Biosciences Institute, an agricultural and medical research consortium; the Medicaid expansion program, which provides Medicaid coverage for pregnant women and increases hospital benefits for Medicaid beneficiaries; the Prevention and Cessation Program, which aims to reduce tobacco use; and the Targeted State Needs Program, which includes support for public health programs for minorities, older Arkansans and residents of rural areas and the Delta.