Columbia, South Carolina – South Carolina has received more than $63 million from the annual tobacco Master Settlement Agreement payment, adding another major installment to a legal recovery that has continued to support the state for more than 25 years.
Attorney General Alan Wilson announced that South Carolina’s latest share totals $63,095,224.77.
The money comes through the 1998 Master Settlement Agreement, often called the MSA, which resolved claims brought by states against the country’s largest cigarette manufacturers at the time.
More information about the agreement is available through the National Association of Attorneys General at https://www.naag.org/our-work/naag-center-for-tobacco-and-public-health/the-master-settlement-agreement/.
The settlement was reached after South Carolina’s Attorney General’s Office joined 45 other states, the District of Columbia and five U.S. territories in legal action against the then-four major U.S. cigarette companies.
It remains the largest financial recovery in legal history, and its impact has stretched far beyond the original companies involved. Since the agreement was signed in November 1998, roughly 50 other tobacco companies have joined the MSA and are also required to follow its terms.
The agreement does more than send annual payments to states. It also placed major limits on tobacco advertising and marketing, changing how the industry could promote its products. At the same time, the payments were designed to help states recover some of the healthcare costs and other harm tied to tobacco use.
In South Carolina, the latest payment will primarily go to the Healthcare Tobacco Settlement Trust Fund, which supports healthcare programs. The fund has been one of the main ways the state directs tobacco settlement money toward public health needs.
Wilson’s office also continues to play a role beyond receiving the payments. The Attorney General is responsible for enforcing state tobacco laws passed under the MSA, while also working with attorneys general across the country to make sure the settlement’s provisions are followed.
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With this year’s payment included, South Carolina has now received $2,114,490,113.12 in tobacco settlement funds since 1998. The figure reflects a long-running stream of money connected to a landmark agreement that continues to shape tobacco enforcement, healthcare funding and state-level accountability decades after it was first signed.
