The state is on track to collect nearly $2.5 billion as part of the Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement (MSA) which turns 20 later next week, according to Kentucky Attorney General Andy Beshear.
Since the first payment in 1999, Beshear says in a release says Kentucky has already collected more than $2 billion under the agreement reached by the tobacco industry and state attorneys general in 1998. In April, he notes the state received $102 million and is on pace to collect another $5 million over the next five years, bringing the total for Kentucky to nearly $2.5 billion.
Beshear says the funding from MSA is critical to the state and has made a positive impact on the Commonwealth for 20 years, supporting early childhood education, health programs, cancer research, and helping to aid farmers in Kentucky and create sustainable farm-based businesses.
Each state determines how the MSA funds are distributed and spent, and Beshear says in the Commonwealth the General Assembly has designated half of the funds to be invested in agricultural diversification through grants issued by the Governor’s Office of Agriculture Policy, which administers the Kentucky Agriculture Development Fund.
Since 1998, Beshear notes tobacco companies have had to compensate states for some of the medical costs associated with tobacco-related illnesses and restrict advertising and promotion of cigarettes in the U.S. states. The payments are determined according to a formula calculated, in part, by the number of cigarettes sold by companies that agreed to join the settlement. The three largest cigarette manufacturers pay most of the MSA payment, which will continue as long as traditional cigarettes are sold by the member companies.
