ALBANY - Half of New York's counties are not spending any of their money from tobacco companies on anti-smoking programs, the American Lung Association said Thursday.

Cash-strapped counties have instead been using their windfall from the 1998 settlement of a multistate lawsuit against the tobacco industry to fill gaps in local budgets.

"A lot of counties are using it for other uses - building jails, road improvement projects, dump trucks, even golf course irrigation programs," said Tim Nichols, director of government affairs for the Lung Association