PROVIDENCE – Rhode Island this week plans to sell $216 million in bonds backed by the state’s last untapped payments from the 1998 national master settlement with tobacco companies, Bloomberg News said.

The bonds are to be issued by the Tobacco Settlement Financing Corp. They will have a final maturity of 2052 and will not begin paying interest to investors until 2024.

A similar bond offering in 2002, also backed by the national tobacco settlement, brought the state $685 million.

How the state will use the proceeds remains unclear. Gov. Donald L. Carcieri has called for using the money for state transportation projects (READ MORE), while the General Assembly has proposed allocating it to the general fund.