Panel Issues $11.6 Million to Steer Virginia Counties Away From Tobacco

Source from:  Richmond Times-Dispatch  05/25/2004

A commission that controls half of the state's tobacco settlement money gave more than $11.6 million yesterday for economic development and education in Southside and Southwest Virginia. The Virginia Tobacco Indemnification and Community Revitalization Commission also adopted a $64.5 million budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1. Created by the General Assembly in 1999, the commission controls 50 percent of the money Virginia receives from cigarette companies under the 1998 national tobacco settlement. Its 31-member board is charged with using that money to help diversify the economies of tobacco-dependent communities and to provide financial assistance to tobacco growers as demand for the crop declines. Ten percent of Virginia's settlement money goes to another foundation that uses it to support a statewide campaign to prevent children from using tobacco products. Forty percent of the money goes into the state's general fund. The grants approved yesterday included about $8.6 million for 12 economic development projects -- most of them involving infrastructure improvements -- in the flue-cured tobacco-growing counties of Southside Virginia. Burley tobacco-growing communities in Southwest Virginia got $2.4 million for similar projects. The commission provided $567,500 to several educational institutions, including $217,500 for a GED distance-learning program run the state department of education. The group also approved $3.8 million for college scholarships, which will be funded from next fiscal year's budget. In its budget for the next fiscal year, the commission plans to provide about $20 million in direct payments to tobacco farmers and quota owners. It also budgeted $8 million for education grants and scholarships, $8.8 million for a telecommunications project aimed at bringing high-speed Internet access to rural communities, $8.5 million for special projects and recruiting businesses, and $17 million in grants to local governments for economic development. Its administrative budget is $2.2 million. Enditem