Legislation : Strategic Contribution Resolution

ND’s Tobacco Settlement STRATEGIC CONTRIBUTION FUND: For CDC-Based Comprehensive Tobacco Control

WHEREAS tobacco use remains North Dakota’s leading preventable cause of death, with 874 North Dakotans dying each year from their own smoking, and 11,000 under-18 kids who now live in North Dakota projected to die prematurely due to smoking;

WHEREAS tobacco use in North Dakota also imposes a staggering economic burden, with smoking-caused direct-healthcare costs alone amounting to $247 million each year, and each North Dakota household paying $569 per year in “hidden” taxes for smoking-caused expenditures;

WHEREAS in 2008 there is more research-based evidence than ever before that fully-funded, comprehensive tobacco prevention and cessation programs do effectively reduce tobacco addiction, save lives and save money by reducing tobacco-caused healthcare costs;

WHEREAS the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has prescribed Best Practices calling for the annual investment of at least $9.3 million in a statewide comprehensive tobacco prevention and cessation program specifically for the state of North Dakota;

WHEREAS despite having already received nearly $200 MILLION since 1998 in “original” Tobacco Master Settlement payments (not to mention the approximately $21 million per year collected annually in tobacco taxes), North Dakota has failed to fund a proven, comprehensive tobacco prevention and cessation program at even the minimum level recommended by the CDC;

WHEREAS as of April, 2008, North Dakota will now begin to receive an ADDITIONAL tobacco-settlement payment of approximately $13 million per year from a separate Strategic Contribution Fund;

WHEREAS North Dakota’s assigned Strategic Contribution Fund payments will be sizable only because leading up to 1998, the ND Attorney General’s office worked tirelessly and provided strong national leadership to negotiate a settlement for the purpose of reducing the death, disease and other dire harms caused by tobacco use in ND;

NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that, in keeping with the originally-stated purpose of North Dakota’s Tobacco Settlement negotiations, North Dakota’s new Strategic Contribution Fund payments should be invested in a science-based, comprehensive statewide program to prevent, control and treat tobacco use in North Dakota.

Adopted this 26th day of March 2008

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