RD138 - Annual Report - Fiscal Year 2004 Virginia Tobacco Indemnification and Community Revitalization Commission


Executive Summary:
On June 30, 2004, the Virginia Tobacco Indemnification and Community Revitalization Commission closed its 5th fiscal year of service to the citizens of the tobacco-producing region of the Commonwealth. In those five short years, it has invested nearly $255 million in an unprecedented transformation of the Commonwealth’s oldest and largest farm economy. The last 12 months have been one of the most productive and rewarding periods of the Commission’s short history.

As mandated, funds received by the Commission from the Master Settlement Agreement (MSA) were used exclusively for two purposes: indemnification and revitalization. Thirty-three percent of MSA revenue was committed directly to individual Virginia tobacco farmers as indemnification for their losses, and 60 percent went into economic revitalization projects, all within the tobacco-producing region. Three percent of the funds remain in reserve. Additional details on these investments are addressed in this report.