LEHIGH VALLEY MORNING CALL: …The report, “Broken Promises to Our Children: The 1998 State Tobacco Settlement 15 Years Later,” ranks Pennsylvania 39th among states for spending only 3.2 percent of the federally recommended level of funding to fight smoking this year.
But the problem is worse than even the report suggests. Pennsylvania’s tobacco money is in flux because a panel of arbitrators this year slashed the funding the state was to receive from the master settlement with the tobacco industry. The arbitrators’ ruling in September would take more than $170 million of the state’s approximately $300 million annual share of the settlement money…
Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane is fighting the arbitrators’ ruling, which reduced the payment because the state 10 years ago allegedly failed to “diligently enforce” the collection of taxes and fees from some tobacco companies… (more)
