ALLENTOWN, Pa. — The Lehigh County Board of Commissioners on Wednesday laid out a plan to spend $17.5 million the county will get through Pennsylvania's opioid crisis settlement.
The plan, offered by the county's Opioid Settlement Steering Committee, shows uses for the total $17,590,667 the settlement will give Lehigh County in regular payments over an 18-year period.
- Lehigh County has laid out a budget plan for the $17.5 million it will receive through lawsuits with opioid manufacturers
- County commissioners have set uses for those funds, related to drug-related treatments in the county
- Funds will be delivered to the county over 18 years
The county has already received some of these funds.
The plan outlines allocations to different goals and programs. It also states that contracts for services that need legislative approval will be required for the release of any contract funds.
This plan establishes that of the $17.5 million allocated to the county over the 18-year span, these initiatives would get funding:
- $490,000 to Northern Lehigh opioid treatment (2.79%)
- $1,715,000 to family coaching (9.75%)
- [No funds listed] Hospital warm hand-off program (0%)
- $950,000 to mobile therapy (5.40%)
- 850,000 to out-of-pocket insurance grants (4.83%)
- $1,424,500 to detox program expansions (8.1%)
- $245,000 for coroner autopsy services (1.39%)
- $5,863,556 for attorney fees and litigation support (33.33%)
- $265,000 for a media and advertising campaign targeting those needing support (1.51%)
- $277,611 to a human impact-community thread program involving data reporting (1.58%)
- An unknown amount for case management services
The process still will be a long one, with specific action items and contracts for each.
"It's a moving target," Commissioner Bob Elbich said.
"The 10 categories on here, they'll start to proceed forward with expenditures in actual actions. And then each year we'll get a review of each of those and then we can make some decisions as to whether or not something is working.
"Once it gets moving, it's going to flow continuously each year and we'll have an opportunity to make our capital budgets and our regular budgets to have input on it."
Lehigh County Executive Phil Armstrong said in October that the county was being very judicious with the money, given that it comes with many regulatory requirements as to how it can be spent.
The historic lawsuit had all 67 counties of Pennsylvania sign on to receive cuts from more than $1 billion last year, with each county set to receive at least $1 million over the payout schedule.
"It was kind of a pie in the sky," Commissioner Geoff Brace said of the county's initial pursuit of the lawsuit years ago. "We had no idea what kind of resources will come to the table."
The motion, which was updated prior to the meeting from the original agenda by Elbich, removed a Medication-Assisted Treatment, or MAT, provision from the recidivism reduction category on the budget that was supported Wednesday.
Incarceration recidivism reduction was slated to get $5,510,000 (31.32%), and is set to have its MAT provision go back to the steering committee for additional review.
Lehigh County already engages in some opioid treatment programs, such as the county's Blue Guardian program, which steps in after someone who has suffered an overdose is revived by the drug Narcan.
A long fight seeing results
The fight over the lawsuit goes back to 2018, Commissioner Brace said, when Lehigh County joined other counties in making moves to sue opioid manufacturers for their role in the overdose crisis, which had increased in deadliness over the pandemic.
Commissioners Brace and Elbich are members of the county's Opioid Settlement Steering Committee.
"That's an amazing point in history," Brace said. "We're now at this point where we're seeing the fruits of our labor and the hard work of the legal team that supported this."
"Every penny that we put out to help families not have this problem in the future is going to be very rewarding."Commissioner Geoff Brace
The City of Allentown also has its own lawsuit over costs related to the opioid epidemic.
The Philadelphia Inquirer reports that Northampton County may be set to get $12.2 million, according to the office of Josh Shapiro in early 2022.
With a lot of money comes the need for oversight. The update to the original motion by commissioner Elbich requires anonymized data regarding contracts and program success before funds are granted so the county can evaluate progress and adjust as needed.
A quarterly expense report will be presented to the county executive and board.
"Our region has been hit hard by the opioid epidemic, and it's a lot of lives have been lost," Brace said. "This is a very small piece of restoring the community to wholeness.
"Every penny that we put out to help families not have this problem in the future is going to be very rewarding. But it's not enough for those lost loved ones, and so we'll keep working at that."
"It will never make up for those losses," Elbich agreed.
In addition to other lawsuits already underway, Brace said there may be the potential for further lawsuits in the future by municipalities.
