(1) The Department of Financial Services Tobacco Settlement Clearing Trust Fund, which shall be referred to as the “Lawton Chiles 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). Moneys 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) 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 or to the Biomedical Research Trust Fund in the Department of Health, as appropriate, in amounts equal to the annual appropriations made from those agencies’ trust funds in the General Appropriations Act.
(5) 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.
