Appropriations committee approves cut to tobacco-prevention fund to free $3 million for general fund

The House Appropriations Committee voted to give Senate Bill 54 a do-pass recommendation after hearing competing testimony over the bill’s plan to reduce the annual allocation to the Tobacco Prevention and Reduction Trust Fund from $5 million to $2 million. The change would direct an additional $3 million into the state general fund.

Proponents, including Jim Terwilliger of the Bureau of Finance and Management, told the committee the transfer is intended to help cover mandatory increases in Medicaid and costs associated with Medicaid expansion. Terwilliger described the proposed change as one of several revenue adjustments intended to “address all the cost increases we’re seeing this year on the general fund side, primarily related to healthcare and Medicaid and Medicaid expansion.”…