Report criticizes New York's cuts in tobacco-prevention programs
By Cara Matthews
Albany Bureau
ALBANY -- New York, which once ranked fifth in the nation for spending on tobacco prevention and cessation programs, now ranks 22nd among all states, according to a study released Wednesday by a coalition of public-health groups.
After cuts enacted last week to help close New York's budget deficit, the state is spending $57 million on initiatives to reduce tobacco use -- $55.2 million in state money and $1.8 million through a federal grant, the report said. That's down from $81.9 million last year, when New York was 19th in the nation. New York cut more than any other state this year, the coalition found.
The total this year is 22.4 percent of the $254.3 million the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends New York spend, the study said. Only one state -- North Dakota -- spends what the CDC recommends.
"Even in these difficult budget times, tobacco prevention is a smart investment that reduces smoking, saves lives and saves money by reducing tobacco-related health care costs," Matthew Myers, president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, said in a statement.
His group, the American Heart Association, the American Cancer Society, the American Lung Association and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation issued the report.
New York's spending on tobacco-prevention programs is lower than the report states, a spokesman for Gov. David Paterson's budget office said. It was reduced to $50.9 million in state money with the deficit-reduction plan last week, and it began at $76.7 million in 2008-09.
New York's tobacco-prevention efforts had been a model program for the country, said Russ Sciandra, lobbyist for the American Cancer Society in New York.
"The fact is that smoking rates in New York, both adult and teenage smoking rates, have been going down much faster than the rest of the country and there was real hope that New York would reach its goal of a million fewer smokers by 2010," he said.
New York's adult smoking rate is 16.8 percent, and the high-school smoking rate is 13.8 percent, compared to the national rates of 20.6 percent and 20 percent, respectively. A million fewer smokers by 2010 would put the state's rate at 13 percent or 14 percent, he said.
Sciandra said tobacco prevention was cut at a disproportionately higher rate than other state programs.
New York will continue to run anti-smoking ads and its Smokers' Quitline, and offer free starter kits of nicotine patches, gum or lozenges, Budget Division spokesman Matt Anderson said.
"We certainly believe that this is a worthy program, but the magnitude of the fiscal emergency that we are facing necessitates reductions in funding for worthy programs," he said.
Nationwide, states are collecting record amounts of revenue from the tobacco industry but are putting less of that toward tobacco prevention, the report said. In 1998, tobacco companies reached a nationwide settlement under which they agreed to reimburse states annually for smoking-related costs, largely for Medicaid spending.
New York will receive $2.13 billion this year from the settlement and tobacco taxes and will put 2.6 percent of that toward such programs, the study said. The state increased its cigarette taxes from $1.50 per pack to $2.75 per pack in June 2008.
At the same time, tobacco companies are spending $429.6 million annually on marketing in New York, the report said.
Altria Group, the parent company of Philip Morris USA, U.S. Smokeless Tobacco Co. and other entities, has consistently encouraged states to bring their spending on prevention and cessation programs in line with CDC recommendations, spokesman David Sutton said. The company does not believe additional taxes are needed to reach these spending goals, he said.
Philip Morris USA has made $42 billion in payments since the tobacco settlement was reached, Sutton said. In 2007, the latest reporting year, the company had its fourth consecutive year of marketing-budget reductions, he said.
Across the country, states will collect $25.1 billion from the tobacco settlement this year and spend 2.3 percent, or $567.5 million, on prevention, the report said.
Each year in New York, 20,900 children become regular smokers, and 25,400 people die in connection with smoking-related illnesses, the report said. Tobacco costs the state $8.2 billion annually in health care bills. Nationally, more than 400,000 people die from tobacco-related illnesses and their health care costs total $96 billion.
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