70% Montana Opioid Abatement Trust Share
Where do these monies live?
Seventy percent (70%) of the state’s opioid settlement funds are held in the private, non-profit Montana Opioid Abatement Trust created by the Attorney General.[1]
80% Abatement Regions sub-share (56% of statewide total). At least 80% of this share is allocated for use by local governments through Montana’s 14 participating abatement regions,[2] i.e., the 5 Department of Public Health and Human Services-defined multi-county regions and 9 metro regions (counties with populations over 30,000) listed here.[3] Any non-participating localities’ amounts are redirected to the Montana Opioid Abatement Trust.[4]
20% Advisory Committee sub-share (14% of statewide total). The remaining 20% of this share can be used by the Advisory Committee on statewide programming,[5] with any funds not used for those purposes redistributed to participating abatement regions according to Exhibit B of Montana’s MOU.[6]
What can this share be spent on?
With limited exceptions,[7] this share must be spent for “Opioid Remediation,”[8] which Montana explicitly defines to mean only forward-looking expenditures as described in the national settlement agreement’s (non-exhaustive) Exhibit E.[9] Exhibit E includes prevention, harm reduction, treatment, recovery, and other strategies.
Montana also defines opioid remediation efforts in the state to specifically include opioid and polysubstance use disorder treatment and prevention strategies; substance use avoidance education; efforts to “decrease the oversupply of licit and illicit opioids, including Fentanyl”; recovery support; and “support for law enforcements (sic) addressing the impact of opioid-related substance abuse in the communities they serve, including misuse or illicit use of heroin and/or Fentanyl.”[10]
Who ultimately decides how to spend this share (and how)?
For 80% of funds, Abatement Regions and local governments decide; for 20%, Montana Opioid Abatement Trust Advisory Committee decides. The Abatement Regions, participating local governments, and the Montana Opioid Abatement Trust Advisory Committee, ultimately decide how disbursements from the Trust are spent on specific opioid remediation expenditures. The Advisory Committee, which governs the trust,[11] is required to facilitate collaboration among the state, regions, and participating local governments and develop a process for receiving their input on abatement efforts.[12]
80% Abatement Regions sub-share. Abatement Regions and local governments ultimately decide specific opioid remediation uses of this sub-share.[13]
Each Abatement Region is responsible for planning, budgeting, and disbursing their sub-shares on opioid remediation projects “that will equitably and appropriately serve the needs of the entire Region,”[14] and their governance structures are required to include the input of their participating local governments in the selection of regional projects.[15]
Abatement Regions, which may collaborate to submit joint applications,[16] submit their proposals to the Advisory Committee, and Trust monies are disbursed after the Committee determines that a proposal meets the criteria for opioid remediation and approved purposes.[17]
The Advisory Committee’s role as to this sub-share is advisory only: it exists to provide “professional advice” to regions when requested and may not reject proposals for approved uses of settlement funds.[18]
20% Advisory Committee sub-share. The Advisory Committee may vote to use this share for “statewide programs, innovation, research, and education,”[19] and any funds not used for those purposes are redistributed to participating abatement regions according to Exhibit B of Montana’s MOU.[20]
Is this share attached to an explicit bar against supplantation?
No, supplantation is discouraged but not prohibited. Montana’s Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) provides that “the State of Montana and its Local Governments [are] enter[ing] into this MOU … to develop a fair and transparent process for making decisions based on medical and scientific evidence concerning where and how to spend the funds from the Settlement Agreements to effectuate forward-looking abatement strategies and to supplement rather than replace existing spending”.[21] The absence of explicit “shall” or “shall not” (or equivalent) language renders this provision a strong discouragement against rather than an explicit prohibition of expenditures that replace (or “supplant”) — rather than supplement — existing resources.
Can I see how this share has been spent?
No (neither public nor intrastate reporting required). Opioid settlement expenditures are not officially published in a centralized location for this share.
Visit OpioidSettlementTracker.com’s Expenditure Report Tracker for an updated collection of states’ and localities’ available expenditure reports.
What else should I know?
Not applicable.
Citations
Montana Distributors’ and Janssen Opioids Settlement Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) D.3(b) (“Seventy percent (70%) shall be allocated directly to the [Montana Opioid] Abatement Trust”) and MOU C.1 (“The Attorney General shall create a private, non-profit Abatement Trust”). ↑
MOU D.7 (“Of the amount apportioned to the Abatement Trust … eighty percent (80%) shall be allocated to the Participating Abatement Regions according to the Subdivision Allocation Percentages in Exhibit B, on the assumption that all Subdivisions within each region become Participating Subdivisions”) and MOU B.4 (“All the Metropolitan Regions that agree to the Settlement Agreements and this MOU as well as all the constituent Participating Local Governments comprising a Multi-County Abatement Region that have chosen to enter into this MOU and the Settlement Agreements shall be treated as Participating Abatement Regions”). ↑
MOU B.4 (“For the sake of clarification, any county or city listed in the MOU Abatement Region Allocation, attached as Exhibit B, within a Multi-County Region that does not enter into this MOU and the Settlement Agreements shall not be included in the Abatement Region where it is geographically located and shall not be entitled to receive any funds from the Settlement. Rather, the share(s) of the funds that a nonparticipating city or county would be allocated according to Exhibit B shall instead be allocated to the Abatement Trust”). ↑
MOU D.12 (“Funds from the Abatement Trust may also be expended by the Trust for statewide programs, innovation, research, and education. Any statewide programs funded from the Trust would be only as directed by an affirmative majority vote of the Committee”). ↑
MOU Amendment I (“To the extent the Abatement Trust Advisory Committee does not expend funds in the Abatement Trust … on statewide programs … , the Committee shall allocate the funds to Participating Abatement Regions and Local Governments in the same manner as the funds described in paragraph D.7”) and MOU D.7 (describing the 80% Trust allocation to Participating Abatement Regions according to Exhibit B of Montana’s MOU). ↑
MOU E.6 and Amendment to Montana Distributors’ and Janssen Opioids Settlement Memorandum of Understanding (MOU Amendment I) (“The Montana Attorney Fee Back-Stop Fund shall be funded by 5.5% of the total settlement funds paid to the State of Montana”). MOU E.7-9 (describing permissible uses of 5.5% back-stop fund only in instances of a “shortfall,” with any unused amounts reallocated according to the original statewide allocation percentages described in Section D of the MOU. MOU D.11 (instructing the Committee and the Abatement Regions that “budgeting for operating expenditures should be conservative and carefully limited” without explicitly capping the Committee’s or Regions’ administrative expenses). See also MOU A.7 (“[q]ualifying [approved use] expenditures may include reasonably related administrative expenses”). ↑
MOU D.3(b). See also MOU D.5 (“The Settlement Funds allocated to the Abatement Trust shall be paid into the Abatement Trust for Approved Purposes”). ↑
MOU A.7 (“Exhibit E in the Settlements Agreements provides a non-exhaustive list of expenditures that qualify as Opioid Remediation,” i.e., the “care, treatment, and other forward-looking programs and expenditures for Approved Purposes”) and MOU A.8 (defining “Approved Purposes” to mean “forward-looking strategies, programming, and services to abate the opioid epidemic as identified by the terms of the Settlement Agreements”). ↑
MOU A.7. ↑
MOU C.2. ↑
MOU C.16 (“The Committee shall facilitate collaboration between the State, Regions, and Participating Local Governments regarding sharing information related to abating the opioid crisis in Montana”) and MOU C.12 (“At the first meeting the Committee shall develop written guidelines for receiving input from the State of Montana, Abatement Regions, Local Governments, and others regarding how the opioid crisis is affecting their jurisdictions or communities and their respective abatement needs”). ↑
MOU B.1 (“Local and regional use of Opioid Settlement Funds shall be implemented through Abatement Regions and the Local Governments within those regions”) and MOU Amendment I (“The governance structure of the Abatement Regions described in paragraph D.9 shall allow for Local Governments within the Region to independently access funds from the Abatement Trust’). See also Montana Association of Counties, National Opioid Settlements (describing this sub-share as “allocated for use by local governments,” with “[c]ounties participat[ing] in the Abatement Trust and Council through ‘Abatement Regions’”). ↑
MOU D.10. ↑
MOU D.9. The amendments to Montana’s MOU also allow a local government to establish its own governance structures to access and administer its share of Trust monies independent of its Abatement Region. MOU Amendment I (“Consistent with the authority granted to Abatement Regions … , any Participating Local Government may also create its own governance structure for the administration, management and use of Opioid Remediation funds [and] may access the funds allocated to the Abatement Trust … based on its allocation percentage in Exhibit B”). ↑
MOU D.13. ↑
MOU D.14 (“Disbursements for proposed Opioid Remediation programs and services to Participating Abatement Regions shall be reviewed by the Committee to determine whether the proposed disbursements meet the criteria for Opioid Remediation and Approved Purposes”) and MOU Amendment I (“The Committee’s responsibility to review proposals as set forth in paragraph D.14 shall be limited to confirmation that the proposal identifies Approved Purposes for which the funds will be expended”). ↑
MOU Amendment I (regarding “C.12 of the MOU”). ↑
MOU D.12 (“Funds from the Abatement Trust may also be expended by the Trust for statewide programs, innovation, research, and education. Any statewide programs funded from the Trust would be only as directed by an affirmative majority vote of the Committee”). ↑
MOU Amendment I (“To the extent the Abatement Trust Advisory Committee does not expend funds in the Abatement Trust … on statewide programs … , the Committee shall allocate the funds to Participating Abatement Regions and Local Governments in the same manner as the funds described in paragraph D.7”) and MOU D.7 (describing the 80% Trust allocation to Participating Abatement Regions according to Exhibit B of Montana’s MOU). ↑
Importantly, this prohibition appears in recital (a) of Montana’s opioid settlement memorandum of understanding rather than in an operative provision. Montana Distributors’ and Janssen Opioids Settlement Memorandum of Understanding. November 26, 2021 (emphasis added). ↑
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