Attorney General Daniel Cameron announced Wednesday that the Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement (MSA) issued $112,659,718 to Kentucky for their annual tobacco settlement payment.

The settlement began in 1998 when Kentucky joined the Tobacco MSA agreement following lawsuits against major tobacco companies for Medicaid costs related to smoking.

The agreement mandates that the specific tobacco manufacturers would make an annual payment to the Commonwealth as long as cigarettes were being sold by the manufacturers.

The amount of each payment would depend on the number of cigarettes sold each year.

Each state in the MSA agreement has the authority to decide how they would like to allocate these funds.

In Kentucky, half of the funds go to agricultural diversification. Funds also go to the early childhood development fund and the Kentucky health care improvement fund.