Iowa banks another payoff from tobacco companies

Iowa received its year-end payoff from the tobacco settlement Monday. Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller says the 17-million dollars is split into two separate investments. Over 13-million dollars goes to pay off the 644-million dollars in bonds that were sold to secure the state’s tobacco money. The remainder of the money goes to an endowment fund. That endowment fund is projected to accumulate over one-billion dollars and the interest will be used for health and health-related projects. Miller says the state has received 140-million dollars from the tobacco companies thus far, and there’s more to come. While the state has moved to protect the amount of money it will receive, Miller says there’s no sign the tobacco companies are backing out of the settlement or facing bankruptcy.