A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT TO PROTECT THE STATE'S MASTER SETTLEMENT AGREEMENT funds.
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:
SECTION 1.  G.S. 66‑291(b)(2) reads as rewritten:
"(2)	To the extent that a tobacco product manufacturer establishes that the amount it was required to place into escrow on account of units sold in the State in a particular year was greater than the Master Settlement Agreement payments, as determined pursuant to Section IX(i) of that agreement including after final determination of all adjustments, that the manufacturer would have been required to make on account of the units sold had it been a participating manufacturer, the excess shall be released from escrow and revert back to such tobacco product manufacturer; or".
SECTION 2.  If this act or any portion of the amendment made to G.S. 66‑291(b)(2) by this act is held by a court of competent jurisdiction to be unconstitutional, then G.S. 66‑291(b)(2) shall be deemed to be repealed in its entirety.  If G.S. 66‑291(b) shall thereafter be held by a court of competent jurisdiction to be unconstitutional, then this act shall be repealed, and G.S. 66‑291(b)(2) shall be restored as if no amendments had been made by this act.  Neither any judicial holding of unconstitutionality nor the repeal of G.S. 66‑291(b)(2) shall affect, impair, or invalidate any other portion of Part 1 of Article 37 of Chapter 66 of the General Statutes or the application of Part 1 of Article 37 of Chapter 66 of the General Statutes to any other person or circumstance, and the remaining portions of Part 1 of Article 37 of Chapter 66 of the General Statutes shall at all times continue in full force and effect.
SECTION 3.  This act becomes effective 1 October 2003.