[§675-1]  Findings and purpose.  (a) 
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.



(b)  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.



(c)  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.



(d)  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.



(e)  On November 23, 1998, 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.



(f)  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. [L 1999, c 188, pt of
§1]