The Florida Senate

17.41  Department of Banking and Finance Tobacco Settlement Clearing Trust Fund.--

(1)  The Department of Banking and Finance Tobacco Settlement Clearing Trust Fund is created within that department.

(2)  Funds to be credited to the Tobacco Settlement Clearing Trust Fund shall consist of payments received by the state from settlement of State of Florida v. American Tobacco Co., No. 95-1466AH (Fla. 15th Cir. Ct. 1996). ¹Moneys received from the settlement and deposited into the trust fund are exempt from the service charges imposed under s. 215.20

(3)(a)  Subject to approval of the Legislature, all or any portion of the state's right, title, and interest in and to the tobacco settlement agreement may be sold to the Tobacco Settlement Financing Corporation created pursuant to s. 215.56005 Any such sale shall be a true sale and not a borrowing.

(b)  Any moneys received by the state pursuant to any residual interest retained in the tobacco settlement agreement or the payments to be made under the tobacco settlement agreement shall be deposited into the Tobacco Settlement Clearing Trust Fund.

(4)  Net proceeds of the sale of the tobacco settlement agreement received by the state shall be immediately deposited into the Lawton Chiles Endowment Fund, created in s. 215.5601, without deposit to the Tobacco Settlement Clearing Trust Fund.

(5)  The department shall disburse funds, by nonoperating transfer, from the Tobacco Settlement Clearing Trust Fund to the tobacco settlement trust funds of the various agencies in amounts equal to the annual appropriations made from those agencies' trust funds in the General Appropriations Act.

(6)  Pursuant to the provisions of s. 19(f)(3), Art. III of the State Constitution, the Tobacco Settlement Clearing Trust Fund is exempt from the termination provisions of s. 19(f)(2), Art. III of the State Constitution.

History.--s. 1, ch. 99-197; s. 3, ch. 2000-122; s. 2, ch. 2000-128; s. 1, ch. 2001-73.

¹Note.--As amended by s. 2, ch. 2000-128. This sentence was amended and divided into two sentences by s. 3, ch. 2000-122; as amended by s. 3, ch. 2000-122, it reads:

"All moneys received from the settlement shall be deposited into the trust fund. Such moneys and interest thereon are exempt from the service charges imposed under s. 215.20"