Amendment_Report_for

Senate Amendments to House Bill No. 534

TO THE CLERK OF THE HOUSE:

THIS IS TO INFORM YOU THAT THE SENATE HAS ADOPTED THE AMENDMENTS SET OUT BELOW:

AMENDMENT NO. 1

Amend by striking all after the enacting clause and inserting in lieu thereof the following:

SECTION 1. Section 43-13-405, Mississippi Code of 1972, is amended as follows:

43-13-405. (1) In accordance with the purposes of this article, there is established in the State Treasury the Health Care Trust Fund, into which shall be deposited Two Hundred Eighty Million Dollars ($280,000,000.00) of the funds received by the State of Mississippi as a result of the tobacco settlement as of the end of fiscal year 1999, and all tobacco settlement installment payments made in subsequent years for which the use or purpose for expenditure is not restricted by the terms of the settlement, except as otherwise provided in Section 43-13-407(2) and (3). All income from the investment of the funds in the Health Care Trust Fund shall be credited to the account of the Health Care Trust Fund. The funds in the Health Care Trust Fund at the end of a fiscal year shall not lapse into the State General Fund.

(2) The Health Care Trust Fund shall remain inviolate and shall never be expended, except as provided in this article. The Legislature shall appropriate from the Health Care Trust Fund such sums as are necessary to recoup any funds lost as a result of any of the following actions:

(a) The federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, or other agency of the federal government, is successful in recouping tobacco settlement funds from the State of Mississippi;

(b) The federal share of funds for the support of the Mississippi Medicaid Program is reduced directly or indirectly as a result of the tobacco settlement;

(d) Tobacco cessation programs are mandated by the federal government or court order.

(3) This section shall stand repealed on July 1, 2011.

SECTION 2. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after July 1, 2006.