Tobacco Prevention Funding is at a Shameful Level in WI

A recent press release from the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids summarizes that Wisconsin currently spends $6.9 million a year on tobacco prevention and cessation programs, which is 10.7 percent of the $64.3 million recommended by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Other key findings for Wisconsin include:

· Wisconsin this year will collect $840 million from the 1998 tobacco settlement and tobacco taxes, but will spend just 0.8 percent of it on tobacco prevention programs.
· The tobacco companies spend $274.0 million a year to market their products in Wisconsin. This is 40 times what the state spends on tobacco prevention.

Along with the tobacco settlement money (that was mostly used to fill up a hole in Gov. McCallum's budget), WI also collects nearly $700 million a year in cigarette taxes. The Tobacco Prevention and Control Program receives the equavalent of (none of the cigarette tax is earmarked for prevention) less than 1% of that tax.

The Tobacco Prevention and Control Program is grossly underfunded. WI’s progress in reducing smoking is at risk unless the state legislature decides to invest in programs to prevent kids from smoking and help smokers quit.

Govenor-elect Walker created a website (http://www.transition.wi.gov/) to "serve as a resource to Wisconsinites in the days leading up to the Inauguration on January 3rd." The website features a page "Citizen Suggestions" where Wisconsinites can provide suggestions for how "we can cut waste and make government run more efficiently for taxpayers."

Prevention programs, like the Tobacco Prevention & Control Program, can help reduce the over $2 billion spent in WI on health-care costs attributed to tobacco-related diseases.

To read the full report from CFTFK: http://www.tobaccofreekids.org/reports/settlements/FY2011/releases/