Too many minors buy cigarettes in Iowa, and as a consequence, organizations designed to help rehabilitate young people with addictions may have less money to do it.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is enforcing a retailer-compliance goal, which punishes states whose stores allow 25 percent of minors to purchase cigarettes illegally, said State Sen. Johnie Hammond.

$5 million in federal funding will be withheld from Iowa this year because Iowa’s non-compliance rate is 36 percent.

“We’re just not doing well, and I think a lot of people are not taking teen tobacco use as seriously as they should,” Hammond said.

Because of the state’s high rate, Youth and Shelter Services, 420 Kellogg Ave., faces a 40 percent cut in funding.

As a nonprofit organization, YSS receives almost half of its funding from the U.S. government, said Bob Kersieck, head of Chemical Dependency Services at YSS. That money is distributed by the state in block grants through the Iowa Department of Public Health and the Department of Human Services.

George Belitsos, executive director of YSS, said the cut will result in a loss of $250,000 for substance abuse programs in Ames and Story County.

Kersieck said many kids will not have the opportunity now to benefit from rehabilitation programs at YSS.

“We served about 400 students with that 40 percent,” he said. “About 160 of them will not be able to access treatment at all.”

Hammond said the penalty is in response to last year’s failure to comply, and the state will face the same consequence next year because the current year’s compliance rate already is poor.

“Another $5 million out of next year really would be devastating,” Hammond said. “This is a time we really need to be working hard to achieve compliance.”

The state has filed an appeal to reverse the funding cut, but Hammond said there is no way to predict whether that will be successful.

“You think it would be, simply because we’re the first caucus state,” she said. “In the meantime, I’m fairly confident that the governor [Tom Vilsack] will find a way to restore that through a supplemental appropriation or an appropriation of some kind.”

YSS is doing its best to cover for the loss on a local level. Belitsos said two Ames City Council members attended a public forum on the issue and promised to put it on the council’s agenda in the near future.

YSS also will to turn to Ames residents and Iowa State students for additional money.

“The city could start enforcing the laws for the retailers selling to the minors, but they haven’t,” Belitsos said. “We need to address this issue or we will continue to lose our funding.”