Keep Tobacco Control Funding!

Tobacco Prevention and Control Program funding is essential to helping smokers quit and preventing children from starting in the first place.

Smoking cessation funding is critical, especially for smokers with a low income, a mental illness, or addictive disorders.

As it stands, the proposed budget for 2009 - 2011 has a modest cut in Tobacco Prevention and Control Funding. With the national increase in the tobacco tax and the proposed state cigarette tax increase, the financial burden will be heavier on low-income people trying to quit, which makes cessation funding all the more critical.

A policy expert from Mental Health America of Wisconsin sent a memo to the members of the Joint Committee on Finance urging them to reject the cut and maintain current funding to help address the tobacco use disparities among people with mental illness.