SOUTH DAKOTA RECEIVES
$7.6 MILLION TOBACCO PAYMENT

(Pierre) Attorney General Mark Barnett announced that South Dakota received its fourth tobacco payment today in the amount of $7.6 million. These payments bring the total amount received from the tobacco settlement to over $36.3 million. The first two payments totaling $16 million were received last December, followed by a payment of $12.3 million last April.

The payments are a result of the November 1998 $206 billion settlement between 44 states and the tobacco industry. Under the settlement South Dakota will receive an estimated $748 million over the first 25 years. The next payment is expected to be received in April.

Barnett also repeated his warning that the tobacco settlement is a very unreliable source of revenue and encouraged policy makers to put both principal and interest in a "lockbox."