Summary: The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends that Wyoming spend $9.0 million a year to have an effective, comprehensive tobacco prevention program.  Wyoming currently receives $6.9 million a year for tobacco prevention and cessation, which includes both state and federal funds.  This is 76.7% of the CDC's recommendation and ranks Wyoming 3rd among the states in the funding of tobacco prevention programs.  Wyoming's spending on tobacco prevention amounts to 14.7% of the estimated $47 million in tobacco-generated revenue the state collects each year from settlement payments and tobacco taxes.

Recent Developments: The FY2009 budget approved by the Legislature and Governor Dave Freudenthal (D) provides $6.9 million for tobacco prevention and cessation programs, a slight decrease from the $7.0 million that was allocated last year. Wyoming's tobacco settlement payments through FY2002 were governed by a 1999 law that placed all the state's settlement payments in a Tobacco Settlement Trust Fund. From FY2003 forward, the settlement funds were placed into an income account that funded substance abuse and other health care issues. Tobacco prevention funding has primarily come from the interest generated by the original trust fund.