From Missouri Digital News: https://mdn.org

JEFFERSON CITY - Missouri's acting budget director announced Monday that Missouri has lost $50 million as a result of a federal appeals court decision involving tobacco settlement payments.

Under the national settlement with several states, including Missouri, the major-brand tobacco companies pay the states for the costs that the states claim they bore from financing health treatment for lower-income smokers.

As part of the agreement, the states are required to impose a tax on other tobacco companies that were not part of the settlement. The tax is designed to prevent non-participating companies from being able to sell tobacco products at lower prices since they are not paying for the settlement.

Several years ago, the tobacco industry filed suit charging Missouri had not met the requirements of the agreement.

On Monday, Oct 5, Acting Budget Director Dan Haug reported that the federal Eastern District Court of Appeals held Missouri's portion of tobacco settlement payments should be $50 million lower than the state administration had expected under an arbitration agreement involving the lawsuit.

Despite the lost revenue, Haug reported that for the first quarter of the budget year, state revenue collections met the original projections of the administration and legislative leaders when they put the state's budget together earlier this year.

For July, August and September, revenue collections grew by 3.6 percent.

But the figures suggest Missouri paid a budget price with the lower tobacco settlement payment -- experiencing only a 1.6 percent growth for September.

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