Subcommittee weighs cuts to tobacco cessation funding as health department and cancer centers urge restoration

The Maryland General Assembly's Appropriation Subcommittee on Health and Social Services heard a Department of Legislative Services analysis on Feb. 5 that recommended trimming $5,700,000 in general funds from the Maryland Department of Health (MDH) fiscal 2026 allowance for tobacco cessation and prevention programs.

The DLS analyst, Naomi Camaro, told the subcommittee that the fiscal 2026 Prevention and Health Promotion Administration (FIPA) budget totals $531,500,000, an increase of about $7 million from fiscal 2025, and that DLS recommends reducing the fiscal 2026 allowance so tobacco cessation programs would be funded at the statutory minimum level. Camaro said the governor’s allowance included $24,000,000 for tobacco cessation and that state law requires at least $18,250,000 be included annually in the budget.

MDH leaders pushed back. Secretary Laura Herrera Scott said the department “respectfully disagrees with this recommendation to reduce the budget for tobacco cessation programs,” arguing the reduction would compromise local health department work and the state’s ability to sustain declines in adult smoking. Deputy Secretary Nilesh Kalyanaraman told the panel the majority of the $5.7 million targeted by DLS “goes to funding the LHDs to do tobacco cessation work,” and characterized the proposed reduction as a risk to ongoing prevention efforts.

Why it matters: DLS presented data showing adult cigarette use has fallen in Maryland over more than a decade but that youth…