TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) - Tobacco companies have paid just over $1 billion to Kansas in the past 18 years to compensate for the health consequences of smoking, state officials said.
Manufacturers paid the state the money as part of a legal settlement to resolve claims by 46 states, said Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt. The settlement allowed Kansas to recover part of the cost it dedicates to tobacco-related illness and disease.
“These payments offset what otherwise would be a taxpayer subsidy of the tobacco industry,” Schmidt said.
Schmidt says payments to Kansas are likely to decline significantly in April 2018 under terms of the agreement. Annual payments from the tobacco industry have ranged from a low of $38.5 million in 1999 to a high of $72 million in 2009.
Kansas uses most of the money to finance early childhood education programs.
The Topeka Capital-Journal (https://bit.ly/1UwmvFC ) reports that state lawmakers have shown an interest in using some of the funding for other state budget needs.
In 2013, Kansas Action for Children filed a lawsuit alleging the attorney general violated Kansas law requiring disclosure of records about tobacco settlement payments. The issue was how much the state would receive as part of a 2012 arbitration settlement in a dispute with Kansas and 18 other states.
Schmidt said in a statement Monday the attorney general’s office still was working out final details of that supplemental agreement with tobacco companies. The companies had accused a cluster of states of failing to live up to their end of the master settlement agreement for the previous decade.
“Protecting these annual payments to the fullest extent possible is a priority for our office,” Schmidt said. “We are determined to continue making these funds available to ease the burden tobacco use can impose on Kansas taxpayers.”
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Information from: The Topeka (Kan.) Capital-Journal, https://www.cjonline.com
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