The Oklahoma Tobacco Settlement Endowment Trust (TSET) just keeps getting bigger.

The TSET Board of Investors has preliminarily certified $64.8 million in Fiscal Year 2018 investment earnings for prevention and reduction of tobacco use and other health issues, State Treasurer Ken Miller said.

Miller is chairman of the board that oversees investment of the majority of Oklahoma’s share of the national Master Settlement Agreement. The board certified the preliminary earnings in August. Following completion of an annual audit, the board will certify final earnings in November.

“Sound investment decisions coupled with a bull market generated exceptional investment returns this past year,” Miller said. “While we celebrate this year’s great news, we know returns are sure to normalize.”

Approved by voters in 2000, Oklahoma is the only state with a constitutionally protected endowment funded by the tobacco settlement.

On June 30, the end of the fiscal year, the endowment contained more than $1.2 billion. The earnings are used by appointed members of the Tobacco Settlement Endowment Trust Board of Directors to fund grants and programs to improve health.

Each year, the endowment receives 75 percent of Oklahoma’s share of the national Master Settlement Agreement with the remainder divided between health care-related appropriations by the Legislature and the attorney general’s evidence fund.

Under the settlement agreement, tobacco companies pay states based on the number of cigarettes sold in the country each year.

To date, payments to Oklahoma total $1.5 billion, and will continue as long as cigarettes are sold nationally.