The state’s Commonwealth Court has upheld a lower court decision restoring more than $125 million in tobacco funding that an arbitration panel sought to deny the state.
Under the terms of the Tobacco Master Settlement, states receive annual payments from tobacco companies to compensate them for the costs they incur caring for people sickened by cigarettes and smoking.  In 2013, an arbitration panel ruled that the state had failed to fulfill all of the settlement agreement’s terms and reduced Pennsylvania’s proceeds from the agreement.  A 2014 appeal of that decision restored much of that funding and the Commonwealth Court upheld that decision.
The tobacco funding is used to support smoking cessation programs, cancer research, and health care services.  It is an important source of funding for care for low-income Pennsylvanians for the state’s safety-net hospitals.
Learn more about this issue and the Commonwealth Court’s ruling in this Philadelphia Business Journal article.