What is the strategic contribution fund and how is it different from earlier state tobacco payments?
The strategic contribution fund is not payment for the fraud perpetrated on smokers or compensation for health costs related to past tobacco usage. Instead, the strategic contribution fund compensates North Dakota for the work done by the North Dakota Attorney General’s Office in finalizing the national tobacco settlement agreement. North Dakota will receive a dramatic increase in the amount of tobacco settlement payments because the Attorney General played a major role in finalizing the tobacco agreement. The legislature and the governor have justified spending tobacco settlement dollars for purposes other than tobacco control arguing that past state government tobacco related health expenditures delayed work on other state projects, like water development. That argument remains nonsense, but it is particularly ridiculous when applied to strategic contribution fund payments.
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