Virginia Falls Behind in Funding Key Tobacco Control Programs

Virginia took 30th place in a newly released national report that ranks and examines the level of funding that all 50 states and the District of Columbia are investing in tobacco prevention and cessation programs. Specifically, Virginia has allocated $8.4 million dollars to be spent on key tobacco programs during Fiscal Year 2012, a $1 million dollar decrease from FY2011. This funding represents only 8.1 percent of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention spending recommendation and only 2.8% of the approximate $299 million in tobacco-generated revenue the state collects annually. This revenue includes settlement payments and tobacco taxes.

On a national level, states across the country will collect $25.6 billion in revenue from the tobacco settlement and tobacco taxes, but will spend only 1.8 percent of it--$456.7 million--on programs to prevent kids from smoking and help smokers quit. Current funding is the lowest since 1999, when states first received tobacco settlement payments.

Virginia is falling woefully short of the recommended funding levels for tobacco prevention programs set by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). There are currently 86,800 high school students in Virginia who smoke and more than 1.1 million adults. Adequately funding key tobacco prevention programs is essential to combat this addiction that takes the lives of 9,200 Virginians every year.

Learn more: A Broken Promise to Our Children: The 1998 Tobacco Settlement 13 Years Later