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   46 States received a total of $52.6 billion dollars in 1998 from the settlement with the four largest U.S. tobacco companies. After analysis by the U.S. Government Accountability Office, what was the money used for in the states between 2000 and 2005?
$16.8 billion (30%) to health (health care, Medicaid, health insurance, hospitals, technology, and research)
$12.8 billion (23%) to state budget shortfalls
12% is unallocated
8% is listed as other
7% to general purpose
6% to infrastructure
5% to education
5% to debt service
4% to tobacco control
   Even though the largest sum went to health, a large sum went to a states budget shortfall. The break down of this data showed that 10 states, at least for 2005, allocated none of their settlement for health while 5 of the states allocated 66% or more of their settlement for health. This may skew some of the averaged data. The amount for the state budget shortfalls was shown to be enormous for the years 2000-2004 and steeply declined in 2005. This is the full report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office on tobacco settlement spending.
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