• This year, New York State will collect $2.3 billion in revenue from the 1998 tobacco settlement and tobacco taxes, but will spend just 1.8 percent of it on tobacco prevention programs. This means New York is spending less than 2 cents of every dollar in tobacco revenue to fight tobacco use.   

• In the past four years, state funding for tobacco prevention programs has been cut by 52 percent.   
             
• The tobacco companies spend 8 times what the state spends on tobacco prevention to advertise their products in New York.

For years New York has been a pioneer in the fight against tobacco. It has the highest cigarette tax in the country at $4.35 per pack, has been a leader in the smoke-free movement, and has had an effective, well-funded tobacco prevention program. As a result, it has reduced the adult smoking rate to 15.5 percent and the high school smoking rate to 12.6 percent, both well below the national average (nationally, 19.3 percent of adults and 19.5 percent of high school students smoke).