The program gets its funding from the California Tobacco Health Protection Act of 1988 Ч known as Proposition 99 Ч which added 25 cents to the state discount cigarettes tax in order to fund tobacco prevention and education programs. In 1996, the County also joined a lawsuit by a group of other counties against the tobacco industry which resulted in a large settlement as retribution for the mounting healthcare costs absorbed by county health departments. Under the auspices of the Tobacco Settlement Advisory Committee, Santa Barbara County receives $4 million per year (for 25 years from the original date), with the monies to be used for Уprevention, treatment, infrastructure and other health.Ф The settlement also required tobacco companies to remove billboard advertising and advertising in sports arenas, remove cartoon characters from advertisements, cease marketing to young people, and make many of their internal documents available to the public.