Fifteen percent (15%) of Pennsylvania’s opioid settlement funds are deposited into the Pennsylvania Opioid Misuse and Addiction Abatement Trust’s (PA Abatement Trust) Litigating Subdivision Account,[1] then distributed to participating litigating subdivisions, who are defined to include counties, district attorneys, cities, townships, boroughs, school districts, and municipal authorities that filed their opioid litigation by July 2021.[2]
A quarter of these funds — or 3.75% of the statewide total — is allocated to Delaware County, Carbon County, and the City of Philadelphia for their “substantial work to advance litigation against the settling defendants.”[3]
Participating district attorneys (DAs) will receive a share based on half of the population of the county that they serve.[4]
The remaining funds are distributed to participating litigating subdivisions by population,[5] subject to certain minimum payment amounts.[6]
With limited exceptions,[7] subdivisions must spend their shares on the uses described in the national settlement agreement’s (non-exhaustive) Exhibit E,[8] which includes prevention, harm reduction, treatment, recovery, and other strategies.
Any beneficiary of the Trust may also petition the court overseeing the Trust to “allow spending on an item of abatement not contained in Exhibit E, provided such spending is deemed by the Court to reduce incidence or rate of opioid addiction and overdose deaths in the Commonwealth.”[9]
The PA Abatement Trust has indicated in an FAQ that “any type of policing activity would not be considered allowable spending.”[10]
Local officials decide autonomously (but must certify proper uses). Counties, participating DAs, and other participating subdivisions (including cities, townships, boroughs, school districts, and municipal authorities) will ultimately decide for themselves how to spend their monies on Exhibit E uses, whether directly or as grants to organizations.[11] However, each must annually certify that their shares will be spent on approved abatement uses in order to receive their funds.[12] County recipients of funds are also required to report expenditures to the PA Abatement Trust and encouraged to spend their funds “equitably across the County.”[13]
Local governments’ certifications and reports of spend are reviewed by the PA Abatement Trust’s Board of Trustees,[14] which governs the trust.[15] The Board may reduce or withhold payments from local governments that use settlement funds for non-approved purposes or fail to comply with annual reporting requirements.[16] The Board provides technical assistance to Trust recipients but is “not specifically authorized to provide advance input to recipients of distributions of Trust funds.”[17]
Monies from the litigating subdivision account share must be spent within 18 months of receipt unless dedicated to a multi-year capital project.[18]
No, supplantation is not prohibited. Like most states, Pennsylvania does not explicitly prohibit supplantation uses of its opioid settlement funds. This means that the Litigating Subdivision Account share may be spent in ways that replace (or “supplant”) — rather than supplement — existing resources. However, the Pennsylvania Opioid Misuse and Addiction Abatement Trust has published guidance describing counties’ uses of settlement funds to pay for services that a county is already required to provide as impermissible uses of their shares.[19]
Eventually (public reporting required for counties and Philadelphia only). Counties and the City of Philadelphia (i.e., not all litigating subdivisions, which defined to include all participating DAs, cities, townships, boroughs, school districts, and municipal authorities) must report expenditures to the PA Abatement Trust,[20] and the Trust must publish an “annual report and accounting.”[21] Bookmark the Trust’s Payment, Spending & Reporting page and view its interim reporting.
Visit OpioidSettlementTracker.com’s Expenditure Report Tracker for an updated collection of states’ and localities’ available expenditure reports.
Not applicable.
Pennsylvania Opioid Misuse and Addiction Abatement Trust Court Order (Allocation Order) Para. II.A(1)(c) (“The Litigating Subdivision Account shall consist of Fifteen (15) % of the Trust Funds to be distributed and shall be paid directly to the Litigating Subdivisions in the manner described in the Allocation Section at ¶VII(B) below”) and Para. VII.B (“The funds designated for the Litigating Subdivision Account shall be distributed directly to participating Litigating Subdivisions based on population according to the 2020 Census…”). ↑
Allocation Order Para. III.I (defining “[l]itigating subdivisions”) and Para. III.G (defining “[c]ounty subdivisions”). ↑
Allocation Order Para. VII.B(1) (these counties are “[i]n the case of the Distributors and J&J Settlements”). ↑
Allocation Order Para. VII.B(2). Funds allocated to a district attorney that is not participating in the settlement agreements are redistributed to participating district attorneys. Para. VII.D. ↑
Allocation Order Para. VII.B(4)(a)-(d). These minimum payment amounts are (a) $100,000 for subdivisions with a population of less than 10,000; (b) $250,000 for subdivisions with a population between 10,000 and 50,000; (c) $500,000 for subdivisions with a population between 50,001 and 100,000; and (d) $1 million for subdivisions with populations greater than 100,000. These minimum payments pertain to monies from the Distributor and Janssen settlements. Litigating special districts will receive a share based on 10% of the population they serve. Allocation Order Para. VII.B(3). Notably, the Allocation Order does not otherwise define “Litigating Special Districts.” ↑
Settlements.” Exhibit E is one of the lettered exhibits attached to both the J&J Respondents’ and Distributor Respondents’ Settlement Agreements”). ↑