The Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee has voted 20-0 in favor of the recommendation from another joint legislative committee, the Millennium Fund committee, for distributing tobacco settlement proceeds to various health and anti-substance abuse programs next year. Rep. Jeff Thompson, R-Idaho Falls, had prepared a motion to instead follow Gov. Butch Otter's recommendation plus fund an anti-prescription drug abuse program at ISU next year, while spending less overall and leaving more money in the fund; but decided not to propose his motion after JFAC Co-Chairman Dean Cameron, R-Rupert, noted the significance of the other joint committee's recommendation.

Three JFAC members serve on the Joint Millennium Fund Committee, including Sen. Dan Schmidt, D-Moscow, who noted that the plan for divvying up the money wasn't his plan, but he supported it. The panel had two days of hearings, he noted; it felt the two programs it didn't fund weren't ready for funding, but could be in the future. The largest items funded from the Millennium Fund, a trust fund that holds Idaho's tobacco settlement proceeds, for next year are $2.5 million for the Project Filter tobacco cessation program; $1.9 million for community-based substance abuse treatment through the state Department of Correction; and $1.1 million for youth prevention and cessation programs through the state Department of Juvenile Corrections. The budget also includes $750,000 for public health districts' tobacco cessation programs; $325,000 for the women's health check program; $328,800 for the Boys & Girls Clubs youth empowerment project; and $264,000 for the Idaho Meth Project, along with other, smaller items.

The budget bill still needs approval from both houses and the governor's signature to become law, but budget bills rarely change after they're set by the joint committee.