2013 New York Consolidated Laws
PBH - Public Health
Article 13-G - (1399-NN - 1399-PP) TOBACCO ESCROW FUNDS
1399-NN - Findings and purpose.

 
    § 1399-nn. Findings and purpose. 1. Cigarette smoking presents serious
  public  health  concerns  to the state and to the citizens of the state.
  The Surgeon General has determined  that  smoking  causes  lung  cancer,
  heart disease and other serious diseases, and that there are hundreds of
  thousands  of  tobacco-related  deaths  in  the United States each year.
  These diseases most often do not  appear  until  many  years  after  the
  person in question begins smoking.
    2.  Cigarette smoking also presents serious financial concerns for the
  state. Under certain health-care programs, the state may  have  a  legal
  obligation  to provide medical assistance to eligible persons for health
  conditions associated with cigarette smoking, and those persons may have
  a legal entitlement to receive such medical assistance.
    3. Under these programs, the state pays millions of dollars each  year
  to  provide  medical  assistance for these persons for health conditions
  associated with cigarette smoking.
    4. It is the policy of the state that financial burdens imposed on the
  state by cigarette smoking be borne  by  tobacco  product  manufacturers
  rather  than  by  the state to the extent that such manufacturers either
  determine to enter into  a  settlement  with  the  state  or  are  found
  culpable by the courts.
    5.  On  November  twenty-third, nineteen hundred ninety-eight, leading
  United States tobacco product manufacturers entered  into  a  settlement
  agreement,  entitled  the "Master Settlement Agreement," with the state.
  The master settlement agreement obligates these manufacturers, in return
  for a release of past, present and certain future claims against them as
  described therein, to pay substantial sums to the state (tied in part to
  their volume of sales); to fund a national  foundation  devoted  to  the
  interests  of  public  health;  and to make substantial changes in their
  advertising and marketing practices  and  corporate  culture,  with  the
  intention of reducing underage smoking.
    6.  It would be contrary to the policy of the state if tobacco product
  manufacturers who determine not to enter into such  a  settlement  could
  use  a  resulting  cost advantage to derive large, short-term profits in
  the years before liability may arise without  ensuring  that  the  state
  will have an eventual source of recovery from them if they are proven to
  have  acted culpably. It is thus in the interest of the state to require
  that such manufacturers establish a reserve fund to guarantee  a  source
  of  compensation  and to prevent such manufacturers from deriving large,
  short-term profits and then becoming judgment-proof before liability may
  arise.