Introduced
by
To increase from 25 percent to 66.6 percent the amount of revenue from the tobacco lawsuit settlement which is earmarked to the Tobacco Settlement Trust Fund. This funds a variety of health care and health research programs. Under current law, 75 percent of the tobacco lawsuit proceeds are deposited in the Michigan Merit Award Trust Fund, which funds the merit scholarship awards made to high school students who do well on the state MEAP test. The Senate Fiscal Agency estimates that Michigan’s share of tobacco lawsuit proceeds will average around $300 million a year for the next several years, assuming the cigarette companies are not bankrupted by other lawsuits, which almost happened in recent Illinois and Florida suits.
Referred to the Committee on Appropriations
