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Substance-abuse budget: opioid grants, Millennium funds and a SAMHSA compliance fix draw scrutiny
Summary
Analysts and the director described one-time and ongoing federal opioid and state Millennium Fund appropriations, a federal compliance issue tied to the 5% administrative cap on the Substance Use Block Grant, and a departmental request to swap fund sources to remain in federal compliance while maintaining staffing.
Alex Williamson, budget and policy analyst with the Legislative Services Office, presented the Substance Abuse Treatment and Prevention budget and summarized recent federal and state grant activity, including an ongoing $8 million state opioid response grant and Millennium Fund appropriations for community-based recovery centers.
Williamson said the division spent roughly $22.7 million in fiscal year 2024, with 76.4% going to trustee and benefit payments for subgrantees and service providers. The division's base includes an $8 million ongoing opioid response grant that was made permanent in recent years.
Williamson described a technical request the department brought to the committee: federal guidance on the substance-use block grant imposes a roughly 5% cap on administrative (personnel) spending. To remain compliant while keeping current staffing, the department requested a swap of fund sources: move $533,900 from liquor-control funds to cover personnel costs and move $673,900 from personnel costs into trustee-and-benefit payments on the federal side, effectively changing which fund pays for which object class.
Senator Cook asked whether the swap was an attempt to avoid addressing administrative spending levels; Williamson said the department would not be allowed to shift federal funds above the cap and that the swap uses available state dedicated funds (liquor control) to pay personnel while allowing the federal grant to focus on trustee and benefit payments to local providers. "They're asking to kind of swap what fund source is paying for personnel versus what fund source is being used for trustee and benefit payments," Williamson said.
Director Alex Adams said the department is a pass-through for many of these grants and reiterated he did not request making programs ongoing in the department's operating budget; several grants are one-time or federal and can be variable year to year. Committee members asked for performance information on settlement-funded projects such as the Boise State University collegiate recovery program and the Idaho Drug Free Youth program; Adams said he had pass-through reports and offered to share them in writing and that Boise State staff had established a collegiate recovery program and hosted events.
Representative Tanner and others pressed for outcome data; Adams said the department would provide reports but emphasized that DHW acts primarily as a check-writing pass-through for several Millennium and settlement-funded programs. No formal committee action was taken during the hearing; the fund-swap request and related enhancements were described for forthcoming budget decisions.
