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House budget shifts liquor commission funding to opioid trust; behavioral-health leaders warn of service gaps
Summary
Katia Fox, director of the Division for Behavioral Health, told the Senate Health and Human Services Committee that the House version of HB 2 would shift about $10.7 million a year formerly tied to liquor-commission revenue into the opioid abatement trust fund, a move she said would preserve the dollar amount but impose restrictions that risk cutting non-opioid substance-use programs.
Katia Fox, director of the Division for Behavioral Health at the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services, told the Senate Health and Human Services Committee that the House budget would replace the liquor-commission tied funding for the governor’s Commission on Alcohol and Other Drugs with an HB 2 appropriation drawn from the opioid abatement trust fund.
Fox said the liquor commission historically contributed about 5% of gross revenues — roughly $10,700,000 a year — to an alcohol fund that the governor’s commission used flexibly. “If the governor's commission now [uses] opioid abatement funds, those restrictions start to apply,” Fox said, noting the opioid settlements impose parameters on allowable uses of the money.
The change, Fox said, keeps the dollar amount but shifts its source. “That means the 10.7 will remain the same. However, the funding source changes to the opioid…
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