With state lawmakers in session weighing decisions on government spending, the state Department of Health sent out a message urging the protection of millions of dollars in tobacco settlement funds earmarked for smoking prevention programs.
"We have to fight every year to keep those dollars," Health Director Virginia Pressler said at a news conference Tuesday.
The amount of settlement funds allotted to state-administered tobacco prevention programs has been reduced over the years and now — 15 years after the states reached more than $246 billion in legal settlements against the tobacco industry — Hawaii spends only 62 percent of the tobacco prevention spending level recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Pressler said.
Since 2010, Hawaii legislators facing recessionary shortfalls and trying to balance the state budget have taken a bite out of the settlement funds.
Currently, the Health Department receives 15 percent of the annual funding, or about $7.5 million of the $50 million settlement payment to Hawaii, while the Hawaii Tobacco Prevention and Control Trust Fund, which is also administered by the department, receives 6.5 percent, or roughly $3 million, of the settlement, officials said.
"These funds are essential to protect the health and quality of life of the people of Hawaii," said Lola Irvin, manager of the Tobacco Settlement Project.
Despite the funding decrease, Hawaii has managed to make strides in tobacco prevention, officials said, including having the third lowest adult smoking rate in the nation, at 13 percent, and reducing lung cancer death rates by 11 percent.
A study published last year by several prominent health and anti-smoking groups found that while Hawaii is not alone in shortchanging tobacco prevention programs, the state does better than most.
The report found that nationwide states on average provided just 13 percent of the CDC-recommended tobacco prevention funding, and only two states — North Dakota and Alaska — were funding programs at the recommended level.
