Clear the Air

Finance Committees in both the House and the Senate have passed out budget bills for FY2011 and there is good news - and bad news - in the proposals for tobacco control.

The House version of the budget restored funding to the tobacco prevention line item to the same level as FY2010 - $5,667,111 - eliminating the 11.5% cuts proposed by Governor Manchin.

However, the Senate kept the cuts advocated by Governor Manchin in his budget proposal and the Senate’s bill would only fund tobacco prevention efforts at $5,010,793.

Over the next few days the two chambers will go about the procedural requirements of appointing budget conferees who will work on hammering out differences between the two versions of the budget bill. Conferees will meet into next week during the extended budget session and, once their work is complete, the full legislature must pass the compromise budget bill to send it to the Governor.

Please contact your House and Senate members requesting that they support the funding of tobacco prevention efforts at NO LESS THAN the FY2010 level .

The Huntington Herald Dispatch is reporting that Cabell Circuit Judge Jane Hustead this afternoon dismissed a temporary injunction on the Cabell County ban on smoking in bars and gambling parlors.

The impact of this ruling is that the new clean indoor air regulation takes effect immediately in Cabell County.

Click here to read the full story from the front page of today’s Charleston Gazette.

The West Virginia Division of Tobacco Prevention (DTP) has begun notifying program grantees around the state of cuts in program funding which will occur in the wake of the budget cut proposed by Governor Manchin to the tobacco education and prevention line item and currently under consideration by the legislature .

According to an email sent to DTP grant subrecipients on Monday “…the Division of Tobacco Prevention is looking at a significant reduction for SFY11 of our State tobacco education and prevention program funding. We also will not have the available the planned carry over funds that we have enjoyed in the past few years. 

” These factors, plus other potential, anticipated reductions in available tobacco prevention funding will cause at minimum a projected 30 percent reduction (as of today) in DTP funding from this to next state fiscal year.”

This reduction in program grants is significantly higher that the 11.5% overall cut proposed by the Administration and, from the programs known to have been notified yesterday, some projects will be completely eliminated.

This underscores the need to continue to ask legislators to reject the reduction in the tobacco education and prevention funding level as proposed by Governor Manchin. Contact your House of Delegate and Senate members immediately and ask that they restore the tobacco prevention funding to at least the FY2010 level.

Also, call Governor Manchin at 1-888-438-2731 and ask him to stop the cuts to existing tobacco prevention, education and cessation programs!

The Coalition for a Tobacco Free West Virginia has asked the Department of Health and Human Resources for clarification of these proposed cuts and if some of the reductions in grants comes from a change in direction or utilization of tobacco prevention funds.