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Committee approves framework for advisory council to guide opioid settlement spending
Summary
The committee voted to advance Senate Bill 2767, which would establish an advisory council and process to recommend spending priorities for Mississippi's opioid settlement funds and require annual reporting.
Senate Bill 2767, establishing an advisory council to develop spending priorities and recommend programs for opioid settlement funds, advanced from the committee after members adopted a friendly amendment clarifying that qualifying applicants should not be excluded from being placed on the council’s recommended list.
Senator Boyd presented the bill and described a 13-member advisory board chaired by the attorney general with co-vice chairs from the state health officer and the executive director of the Department of Mental Health. The board would include gubernatorial and legislative appointees, a member appointed by the chief justice, representatives of municipal and supervisors associations, chiefs of police and sheriffs’ associations, and additional nonvoting advisors from prosecutors, Medicaid, child protection services, public safety, education, and mental health centers. The sponsor said the advisory body would prioritize spending for abatement, treatment and prevention and produce annual reports to the governor, legislature and public.
Whitney, representing the Attorney General’s office, spoke in support and emphasized that settlement money is for abatement and prevention and that the model will help ensure funds are used consistently with the settlement agreement.
Committee members discussed that 15% of settlement dollars went directly to local governments that opted into the lawsuit, another 15% went to state discretionary uses, and roughly 70% is abatement funding subject to legislative appropriation. Senator Hobson offered a friendly amendment to ensure that no qualifying applicant would be excluded from submission to the legislature; members adopted that amendment by voice vote. After debate the committee voted to advance the committee substitute by voice vote.
No appropriation into the proposed fund has been made; an amount of $80,000,000 was referenced in committee discussion as the current total expected under the settlement but was not reported as an appropriation within the bill itself.
