June 15th, 2010

From The Patriot News:

Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell and the House Democrats’ revenue plan to fund the 2010-11 state budget calls for directing $340 million of tobacco settlement funds, which are part of a $206 billion multi-state settlement with tobacco companies to compensate for smoking-related health expenses, into the general fund to pay for general government operations.

This is being proposed as a one-time fix to help the state fill an anticipated $1.6 billion revenue hole.

Programs such as smoking cessation and prevention that have come to rely on the settlement money would be paid for services provided in 2010-11, but that money wouldn’t be allocated until payments are received in 2011, said Johnna Pro, a spokeswoman to House Appropriations Committee Chairman Dwight Evans, D-Philadelphia. She described it as an accounting maneuver that moves away from “prospective” funding of health-related programs for the coming year to funding them after the fact.

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