Erie County won't be affected - thanks to a timely sale of its tobacco settlement - but other counties in Western New York will receive less money than expected in the latest round of settlement payments by tobacco companies.

That's the word from State Attorney General Eliot L. Spitzer, who sent letters Wednesday to local officials around the state specifying the latest payments, which are substantially less than the figures he projected 14 months ago. In all, Spitzer said, the state, New York City and the 57 counties outside the city will get $247 million on Friday. Erie County won't be affected by the changes, said Charles M. Swanick, chairman of the County Legislature. "Erie County's tobacco sale closed months ago," said Swanick, D-Kenmore. "We have received our allocation of about $210 million. This issue will not have any impact on our sale, because we chose to go to market earlier rather than later." Chautauqua County also has already sold its settlement. Other counties receiving payments Friday include: Niagara County, $1.15 million, down from a projected $1.51 million. Genesee County, $291,621, down from $383,431. Cattaraugus County, $442,374, down from $581,645. Wyoming County, $200,180, down from $263,202. Orleans County, $192,766, down from $253,454. In a September 1999 projection of payments under the settlement, Spitzer estimated that state and local governments would collect nearly $325 million for the upcoming payment, which is not technically due until Jan. 10, 2001. The difference is because of declining sales of cigarettes in the United States over the past year, said Spitzer spokesman Marc Violette. The payments from the tobacco companies are subject to yearly changes, with the biggest coming through the "volume adjustment." It reflects the number of cigarettes shipped by manufacturers. Because the tobacco industry payments are designed to offset public health costs from smoking, it makes sense to reduce the payments if fewer cigarettes are being consumed and, presumably, fewer people will be getting sick from smoking, Violette said. Blair Horner, legislative director for the anti-smoking New York Public Interest Research Group, said the reduction in consumption is because of price increases imposed since late 1999 by tobacco manufacturers. In addition, a near-doubling of taxes on cigarettes in New York State, starting in March, has also been a more minor relative factor in causing sales to fall off. But states must mount campaigns against smoking, especially by young people, to maintain the sales decline, Horner said. "What you see typically in states that have had big price hikes . . . is some sort of drop in the consumption rate, then the smoking rate goes up again" as people adjust personal budgets to costlier cigarettes, Horner said. Not all counties will be banking the checks they will get Friday. About two dozen, including Monroe, Nassau and Westchester counties and New York City in addition to Erie and Chautauqua, already have sold their rights to collect payments to investors, in exchange for upfront cash. The local governments get their money up front that way, though overall they will get only 40 percent of the projected settlement funds by opting to collect them right away. Spitzer said the state will get $126 million, or 51 percent of Friday's payment. New York City will get $66 million, or 27 percent, and the other 57 counties in the state will split up $55 million, or 22 percent. Friday's payment will be the fourth the state and local governments have gotten. In all, $1.277 billion will have flowed into the state and local treasuries through the settlement as of Friday, according to Spitzer's office. The state and counties are scheduled to share in about $25 billion over the first 25 years of the tobacco settlement.

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