Arkansas Gets $49.5M from Tobacco Settlement Pact

Arkansas has gotten a big check from the 1998 Master Settlement Agreement with tobacco companies.

Attorney General Dustin McDaniel announced Wednesday that the state received more than $49.5 million this week as its annual share of proceeds from the agreement, bringing the total disbursement to $621.4 million since 2001.

The money funds public health programs in Arkansas, and the voter-approved Tobacco Settlement Proceeds Act sets out how it is to be distributed.

The Master Settlement Agreement payments are administered by the state Board of Finance through the Tobacco Settlement Program Fund.

The Arkansas Biosciences Institute, the Medicaid Expansion Program, the Prevention and Cessation Program and the Targeted State Needs Program receive money from the settlement program fund.