15% Local Share

Where do these monies live?

This share is distributed directly to 146 participating counties, cities, towns, and villages according to the percentages listed here­­­.[1]

What can this share be spent on?

Mississippi’s settlement memorandum of understanding provides that localities “may” spend funds from this share “for opioid abatement, or any purpose deemed appropriate by [a] County or Municipality,” with no more than half used for certain local governments’ attorneys’ fees.[2] However, at least a portion of monies in this share must be spent on abatement uses (as illustrated the non-exhaustive Exhibit E, which includes prevention, harm reduction, treatment, recovery, and other strategies) to ensure the state meets the minimum opioid remediation spending requirements in later settlement agreements.[3]

Who ultimately decides how to spend this share (and how)?

Local governments decide autonomously. Decisionmakers for counties, cities, towns, and villages will decide for themselves how to spend their monies from this share.[4]

Are supplantation uses prohibited for this share?

No, supplantation is not prohibited. Like most states, Mississippi does not prohibit supplantation uses of its opioid settlement funds. This means that its 15% local share may be spent in ways that replace (or “supplant”) — rather than supplement — existing resources.

Can I see how this share has been spent?

Up to each locality (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

1. Mississippi State-Local Government Opioid Litigation Memorandum of Understanding, Sec. B.1(a) (“The County/Municipality fund will receive 15% of all Settlement funds for the direct benefit of Mississippi Counties and Municipalities. The amounts to be distributed to each County and Municipality shall be determined by the Negotiation Class Metrics”). Non-litigating cities and towns with populations under 10,000 will have their amounts reallocated to their counties. Mississippi State-Local Government Opioid Litigation Memorandum of Understanding, Sec. B.1(a)(ii). See also Mississippi State-Local Government Opioid Litigation Memorandum of Understanding, Sec. A.5 (defining “County” to mean “one of the 82 governmental subdivisions in the State recognized and/or established under the Mississippi Constitution of 1890 that filed a lawsuit against settling Pharmaceutical Supply Chain Participants as of August 1, 2021, or has a population greater than 10,000 individuals”), A.6 (defining “Municipalities” to mean “cities, towns, or villages within the State with a population greater than 10,000 individuals and shall also include all cities and towns that filed a lawsuit against settling Pharmaceutical Supply Chain Participants as of August 1, 2021”). Note that all Opioid Settlement Funds are deposited into the Attorney General Contingency Fund before being allocated into the respective shares. Mississippi State-Local Government Opioid Litigation Memorandum of Understanding, Sec. B.1. ↑

2. Mississippi State-Local Government Opioid Litigation Memorandum of Understanding, Sec. B.1(a). A maximum of 7.5% may be spent for certain local governments’ attorneys’ fees. See Mississippi State-Local Government Opioid Litigation Memorandum of Understanding, Secs. C, C.1 (requiring creation of “County/Municipality Fee Fund” to “pay attorneys’ fees and expenses for participating Counties/Municipalities in the State that filed opioid lawsuits on or before August 1, 2021 (‘Litigating Participating Counties/Municipalities’)”), C.2 (providing that “In no circumstance shall the CMFF receive more than 7.5% of the net Total Cash Value received by the State” without specifying which share this 7.5% will be drawn from), C.3 (providing that any remaining funds in the CMFF “shall revert pro rata to the Litigating Participating Counties/Municipalities”). See also Mississippi Attorney General’s November 5, 2021 letter to localities (“The national settlement proposed a split of funds due to each state as: 70% to an abatement fund, 15% to a State fund, 15% to a local government fund. … However, we also want to use a portion of the State fund to help local governments meet their contractual obligations to their attorneys who have helped to bring us to these settlements”). ↑

3. Mississippi originally intended to provide localities the flexibility to spend their share of settlement funds without restriction by directing 70% of the state’s settlement monies to the University of Mississippi Medical Center, thereby satisfying the Distributor and Janssen settlement agreements requirement to spend a minimum 70% of funds on opioid remediation. See Mississippi Executed Judgment, June 30, 2022 – Distributor pg. 3 and Janssen settlement agreement Sec. I.47. See also Mississippi Attorney General’s November 5, 2021 letter to localities (“Mississippi has suffered great loss and I am committed to ensuring every dollar our State and local governments is due remains in Mississippi and is not clawed back by the defendants. To that end, we worked with the University of Mississippi Medical Center to create a program that meets the opioid abatement requirements for the State. This will free local governments up to use your funds as you see fit without a national fund administrator micromanaging their use”) (emphasis in original). However, later settlement agreements, such as those with CVS, Walgreens, and Walmart, require a greater percentage of funds be spent on opioid remediation. See, e.g., CVS Settlement Agreement, Sec. V(B)(1) (minimum 95.5% opioid remediation spending); Walgreens Settlement Agreement, Sec. V(B)(1) (minimum 95% opioid remediation spending); Walmart Settlement Agreement, Sec. V(B)(1) (minimum 85% opioid remediation spending). This means that even if all the UMMC share (70%) and state share (15%) are spent on opioid remediation, some portion of the local share must also be spent on opioid remediation to meet the minimum opioid remediation spending requirements of certain settlements (e.g., CVS and Walgreens). ↑

4. Mississippi State-Local Government Opioid Litigation Memorandum of Understanding, Sec. B.1(a) (“[Counties’ and municipalities’] funds may be spent for opioid abatement, or any purpose deemed appropriate by said County or Municipality”). ↑