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Senate advances plan to split tobacco settlement between trust fund and health programs
Summary
The Utah Senate advanced a second-substitute version of S.B. 15 that directs half of tobacco-settlement receipts into a restricted trust and spends the remainder on CHIP, prevention, drug courts and university research; the measure passed to the third-reading calendar after extended debate and questions about fiscal notes and sunset provisions.
Salt Lake City — The Utah Senate on Feb. 24 advanced a sweeping plan to allocate the state's tobacco-settlement proceeds, voting to send Second Substitute Senate Bill 15 to the third-reading calendar after extended floor debate.
Sen. Poulton, the bill sponsor on the floor, said the measure ‘‘would give us the direction that we would appropriate that money,’’ laying out an ordered funding ladder that prioritizes the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) and earmarks funds for prevention, treatment and research while depositing a large share into a permanent trust.
Under the bill as explained on the floor, the legislature would direct $5,500,000 to CHIP, $4,000,000 to tobacco-prevention and cessation programs, $2,000,000 to a drug-court program and $4,000,000 to the University of Utah Health Sciences Center. Fifty percent of receipts for the first three…
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