Council approves Cycle 2 budget increase, sets new grant selection limits; ETSU requests contract extension

The Tennessee Opioid Abatement Council approved a revision to the Cycle 2 community grants budget and adopted new application screening rules intended to reduce risk and encourage particular strategies.

Finance staff reported the opioid abatement trust fund's net cash on hand as $209,718,708.83 (statement current to January 2025). Staff said approximately $25 million will be available for allocation at the council's next meeting after planned commitments are reconciled. Council staff also reported that recent settlement receipts — including funds from the Kroger settlement — increased the trust fund and allowed staff to recommend raising the first-year Cycle 2 award pool by $5 million. The council voted to increase the Cycle 2 first-year award amount from $20 million to $25 million and to raise the three-year maximum pool from $60 million to $75 million.

Staff described the Cycle 2 procurement as unusually large: 294 applications requested roughly $417 million in total across all strategies. To reflect prior council encouragements the staff proposed moving some award percentage targets toward primary prevention, harm reduction and recovery support and away from education/training and research; the council asked staff to hold the allocations steady until scoring is complete and said staff should flag collaborative applications in scoring reports.

As part of a risk-control package the council also approved a qualification limiting requests from very-new organizations: if an applicant organization has been incorporated for less than 24 months, its requested grant funding cannot exceed 100% of that agency’s operating budget. Council members said the limit is intended to reduce the chance of awarding large sums to newly formed entities that do not have an operating history. The council also discussed — but did not finalize during this meeting — a proposal limiting organizations to a single award per cycle; members noted fairness concerns for applicants who submitted multiple distinct projects.

Separately, Eastern Tennessee State University (ETSU) sought a one-year extension on a three-year workforce grant because academic recruiting timing delayed faculty hires. ETSU asked to convert a three-year contract into a four-year contract without raising the overall budget (year-3 funds would roll to year 4). Staff said ETSU has begun additional recruiting and that a budget revision could be offered instead to make two-year hires more competitive. The council did not record a formal vote on the ETSU request during the meeting; staff said they would return with a recommended route (budget revision or contract extension) and the council’s next steps.

Cycle 1 grant monitoring work also continued: staff reported 338 invoices received (payments and processing totaling more than $10.3 million as of Feb. 26) and an updated total of more than $11 million in invoices paid by the following Friday. Fiscal monitoring site visits are underway and staff plan a round of program site visits between April and June.