Big cigarette makers could recoup $2 billion under a proposed deal with state attorneys general to resolve a long-running dispute over payments required by the landmark 1998 tobacco settlement, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Negotiators for Altria Group Inc.’s Philip Morris USA and other tobacco companies have reached a tentative deal with officials representing the 46 states, including Iowa, that signed the 1998 Master Settlement Agreement, say people familiar with the matter.

The accord would allow big tobacco companies to keep part of the money they have withheld from states or otherwise disputed under the 1998 pact, under which they agreed to pay more than $200 billion to help states recover the costs of treating sick smokers.

Since 1998, the three largest tobacco companies and about 50 other companies that later signed the master accord have paid about $81 billion to states.

Iowa’s share of the original settlement, which is set to continue as long as the tobacco companies operate, is estimated at $1.7 billion through 2025. Last year the state received $68.7 million in tobacco settlement funds.

Many states rely on the revenue to pay for general operating expenses and health-care programs. At least a dozen states, including California, New York and Ohio, have issued billions of dollars in bonds backed by the flow of tobacco-settlement dollars. More than $55 billion of such bonds are outstanding, according to Thomson Reuters.

The current negotiations center on an “adjustment” provision in the 1998 settlement. That provision lets tobacco companies reduce their annual payments to states if their collective market share drops below certain thresholds and if they can show that states failed to create a level competitive playing field.