Beshear: Kentucky receives more than $117 million in tobacco settlement money

FRANKFORT, Ky. (WTVQ) – Kentucky received $117,586,774.56 in tobacco settlement money last week, according to the attorney generals office.

“For two decades the Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement has had a positive impact on the Commonwealth, supporting early childhood education, health programs, cancer research, and helping to aid our farmers and create sustainable farm-based businesses,” Beshear said. “Since the first payment in 1999, Kentucky has received more than $2 billion under the agreement, and is on pace to collect nearly $2.5 billion over the first 25 years of the agreement.”

They say each state determines how the MSA funds are distributed and spent.

In Kentucky, the General Assembly has designated that half of the MSA funds be invested in agricultural diversification through grants issued by the Governor’s Office of Agriculture Policy, which administers the Kentucky Agriculture Development Fund.

Under the MSA, the tobacco companies agreed to make annual payments, in perpetuity, worth approximately $208 billion to states and territories that are signatories to the agreement.

The Tobacco Settlement Agreement Fund Oversight Committee oversees the determinations on grant applications from the agricultural fund. The remainder of Kentucky’s MSA revenue is used to help improve the health outcomes of Kentucky children and families.