Tobacco Payments on the Way

Source from:  12/17/2005 1:12 PM By: Associated Press RALEIGH, N.C. 12/19/2005

More than 76,000 tobacco growers and quota owners will be getting checks from the Phase II Trust Fund, Gov. Mike Easley said Friday. Easley said checks worth more than $152 million were being mailed Friday and Monday. North Carolina tobacco farmers and quota holders have received more than $837 million from the fund since 1999. Easley said the funds were negotiated alongside the national tobacco settlement for health care costs to be sure the tobacco community was taken care of. This is the last year for the Phase II payments because the tobacco quota system has ended with a federal buyout of the quota's value. In October, a judge ruled that tobacco companies had to make final payments into the fund despite the $10 billion quota buyout. Enditem