Summary: The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends that Wisconsin spend $64.3 million a year to have an effective, comprehensive tobacco prevention program.  Wisconsin currently receives $16.3 million a year for tobacco prevention and cessation, which includes both state and federal funds.  This is 25.3% of the CDC's recommendation and ranks Wisconsin 24th among the states in the funding of tobacco prevention programs.  Wisconsin's spending on tobacco prevention amounts to 2.3% of the estimated $723 million in tobacco-generated revenue the state collects each year from settlement payments and tobacco taxes.

Recent Developments: The FY2008-09 biennial budget increased the state's tobacco tax by $1 per pack and allocated $15.0 million per year for tobacco prevention, a 50 percent increase over the $10 million allocated in the previous budget. This progress was made with bipartisan legislative support and Gov. Jim Doyle's leadership. An additional amount of funding ($250,000) was included in subsequent budget repair legislation, bringing the total state allocation for FY2009 to $15.3 million. The tax increase makes Wisconsin's cigarette tax the 15th highest in the nation at $1.77. Wisconsin's tobacco prevention funding comes from the state's general fund because in 2001 all of the current and much of the future settlement proceeds were securitized for a smaller up-front payment. Under the direction of former Gov. Scott McCallum and the legislature, the securitization revenue was squandered to fill a hole in a single biennial budget. Wisconsin has seen positive results from its tobacco prevention program. Adult smoking prevalence in Wisconsin has decreased by almost a fifth since 2000. Youth results have been even better, dropping more than a third in the same time. Calls to the state quitline increased from about 8,000 annually to more than 20,000 in a several month period around the implementation of the cigarette tax increase on January 1, 2008.