Some people who win lottery jackpots invest their money in ways that improve their own lives and the lives of others. Some people fritter it away and end up worse off than they were before.
And so it is with the millions of dollars coming into West Virginia from opioid settlements. The question is how counties should spend their shares of the money. There will be a lot of pigs at this trough. Already some counties are allocating their settlement dollars for wish-list projects that are only tangentially connected to substance abuse.
A project of journalism students in the Reed School of Media at West Virginia University has tracked how counties are spending the money they receive from a global opioid settlement Ƶ an estimated $980 million over the next 17 years.
The question naturally arises of how much should be used to mitigate past damages to communities from opioid addiction and how much should be used for long-range plans and goals. So far, at least nine counties have spent more than $3.5 million on bills to house West Virginians in its 10 regional jails. That is an approved use of settlement money established in a memorandum of understanding issued by then-Attorney General Patrick Morrisey in 2022.
At first glance, using one-time-only money from opioid settlements for short-term needs such as jail bills is self-defeating in the long run. But the damage done by opioid addiction in the past remains with us, and counties with smaller tax bases face the difficult question of balancing immediate needs with long-range planning. And itƵs not easy focusing on the long term when you have pressing needs in the short term.
Several county officials told ƵU students the decision to pay off the jail bills first stems from a lack of funding to pay down what they owe. Grant County is one, but Commissioner Kevin Hagerty said the Grant County Commission also has plans to use its funding to assist in opening a nonprofit sober living house.
ƵBefore we commit to funding, there are various things that we must consider, such as liability issues, operational structure, who would oversee different mechanics of the house, etc.,Ƶ he said. ƵWe are pretty early in the process; however, it is something that we see as very positive if it were to come to fruition.Ƶ
LetƵs be real here. Given the experience of Huntington and other large communities in West Virginia, who would want one sober living home, let alone more than one, without more-than-adequate preparation for the down sides of their being in a small, rural community?
ItƵs easy for outsiders to second-guess how local people should respond to local problems with local resources. This money will never come again. ItƵs up to local communities to let local officials know if they think settlement dollars should go to jail bills, pet local projects, prevention programs, social workers or other local needs that meet the requirements of the MOU. That feedback is a necessary part of self-government.
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