$6.8 million for new Taunton housing

The WEIR Corp., a Taunton nonprofit community development corporation, will receive $750,000 from the Housing Stabilization Fund and $806,729 in federal low-income housing tax credits, according to a release from the governor’s office. The funding is expected to generate more than $6 million in investor equity over the next decade for the project.

The funds will go toward WEIR’s acquisition of an existing mill building at 120 Ingell St. and its conversion into 64 apartments for low- and moderate-income households. The building will also include business and commercial space on the first floor. The city is providing $148,000 from its Brownfields Cleanup Fund for site remediation and $600,000 in federal Section 108 loan funds, the release said.

State to get $7 million under tobacco settlement

BOSTON – Attorney General Tom Reilly recently announced that Massachusetts will receive more than $7 million under a new $160-million nationwide settlement with tobacco companies, resolving some remaining details from the 1998 agreement, the Associated Press reported.

Major tobacco manufacturers agreed in the settlement to take responsibility for cigarettes they manufacture for other companies. Most of the commonwealth’s money will come from Brown & Williamson. According to the AP, the company had previously refused to make payments to the states for cigarettes it manufactured for Star Tobacco Inc.

The settlement also proves the 1998 settlement was a “significant factor” in tobacco companies’ market share to decline since then, the AP said. Mark Smith, a spokesman for Brown & Williamson, whose brands include Kool and Lucky Strike, said the settlement lowers the amount of money the company will pay through the 1998 settlement, because it has lost market share. Since the 1998 settlement, Brown & Williamson’s share of the national tobacco market has declined from 14 percent to 10 percent, Smith said.