30% State Share
Where do these monies live?
Wisconsin’s state share of opioid settlement funds is allocated to the Wisconsin Department of Health Services (DHS).[1]
What can this share be spent on?
With limited exceptions,[2] this share must be spent on the uses described in the national settlement agreement’s (non-exhaustive) Exhibit E,[3] which includes prevention, harm reduction, treatment, and other strategies.
Who ultimately decides how to spend this share (and how)?
Department of Health Services proposes, state legislature decides. The Wisconsin Department of Health Services (DHS) must develop an expenditure proposal and submit it to the Wisconsin state legislature’s Joint Committee on Finance.[4] If the Joint Committee on Finance takes no action within 14 working days, then DHS can proceed with expenditures based on its plan.[5] However, the Joint Committee on Finance may opt instead to hold a meeting to review the proposal and make changes, and DHS can only spend funds once the plan is approved.[6]
Is this share attached to an explicit bar against supplantation?
No, supplantation is not prohibited. Wisconsin does not explicitly prohibit supplantation uses of opioid settlement funds from its state share. This means that the state share may be spent in ways that replace (or “supplant”) — rather than supplement — existing resources.
Can I see how this share has been spent?
Yes (public reporting not required, only intrastate). Though this share is technically subject only to intrastate reporting of spending plans to the Joint Committee on Finance,[7] DHS publishes amounts approved for each fiscal year and quarterly progress reports for its funded opportunities on its Dose of Reality: Opioid Settlement Funds website.
Visit OpioidSettlementTracker.com’s Expenditure Report Tracker for an updated collection of states’ and localities’ available expenditure reports.
What else should I know?
In April 2024, the legislature exercised its right to overrule DHS’ recommendations for state share spending.[8] The Joint Committee on Finance has exercised its power to “block and revise” DHS’ plan for fiscal years 2023 and 2024,[9] and news coverage describes how “[i]n rewriting the first annual plan for $31 million, submitted in 2022 for the 2023 fiscal year, the finance committee’s Republican majority directed money to law enforcement agencies and to some specific nonprofits not previously named in the DHS plan.”[10]
Citations
Wis Stat. Sec. 165.12(2)(b) and (3)(a). Wisconsin State-Local Government Memorandum of Understanding (2022 MOU) Sec. A.3 and Wisconsin State-Local Government Memorandum of Understanding for the Allocation of Opioid Settlement Proceeds (2023 MOU) Sec. 3 (“Opioid Settlement Proceeds shall be allocated as follows: (i) 30% to the State of Wisconsin (‘State Share’); and (ii) 70% to Local Governments (‘LG Share’). See also 2022 MOU Sec. A.4 and 2023 MOU Sec. 4 (100% of the “Additional Restitution Amount” paid to the State and deposited with DHS). ↑
Wis Stat Sec. 165.12(3)(a); 2022 MOU Sec. A.5 and 2023 MOU Sec. 5 (state share and the “Additional Restitution Amount” must be “utilized only or purposes identified as approved uses for abatement” in the settlements); Distributor Settlement Agreement I.SS (“Exhibit E provides a non-exhaustive list of expenditures that qualify as being paid for Opioid Remediation. Qualifying expenditures may include reasonable related administrative expenses”). ↑
Wis Stat Sec. 165.12(3)(a) (“Moneys payable to the state … shall be allocated to the department of health services for expenditure for purposes that comply with any settlement agreement or order of the court”) and Distributor Settlement Agreement I.SS (“Exhibit E provides a non-exhaustive list of expenditures that qualify as being paid for Opioid Remediation”). See also 2022 MOU Sec. A.5 and 2023 MOU Sec. 5 (state share and the “Additional Restitution Amount” must be “utilized only or purposes identified as approved uses for abatement” in the settlements). ↑
Wis. Stat. Sec. 165.12(3)(a). See, e.g., National Prescription Opiate Litigation Funds: DHS Proposal for State Fiscal Year 2025. Department of Health Services (DHS). April 1, 2024. Accessed September 2, 2024. DHS Submits Plan to Legislature’s Joint Committee on Finance on How to Use $36 Million in Opioid Settlement Funds. DHS press release. April 2, 2024. Accessed September 1, 2024. ↑
Wis. Stat. Sec. 165.12(3)(a). ↑
Wis. Stat. Sec. 165.12(3)(a)-(b). State law details the sequence: “If the cochairpersons of the joint committee on finance do not notify the department within 14 working days after the date of the submittal under this paragraph that the committee has scheduled a meeting for the purpose of reviewing the expenditure proposal, the department may expend the moneys as described in the proposal. If, within 14 working days after the date of the submittal under this paragraph by the department, the cochairpersons of the committee notify the department that the committee has scheduled a meeting for the purpose of reviewing the expenditure proposal, the department may expend the moneys only upon approval by the committee.” Wis. Stat. Sec. 165.12(3)(a). The same process applies if DHS seeks to modify its spending plan during a fiscal year. Wis. Stat. Sec. 165.12(3)(b). See, e.g., Dose of Reality: Opioid Settlement Funds. DHS. Last revised August 23, 2024. Accessed September 1, 2024 ("We submitted our plan for this funding to the Joint Committee on Finance April 1, 2024 … The Joint Committee on Finance modified our plan. The modified plan was approved May 7, 2024”). ↑
Wis. Stat. Sec. 165.12(3)(a)-(b). ↑
Letter from the Wisconsin Joint Committee on Finance to DHS Secretary-Designee Johnson. April 22, 2024. Accessed September 1, 2024. ↑
Erik Gunn. GOP lawmakers to unveil opioid settlement plan rewrite while Evers demands PFAS cleanup funds. Wisconsin Examiner. May 6, 2024. Accessed September 1, 2024 (“During that two-week window that committee can block the plan and revise it, which it has done for the first two opioid settlement plans for the 2023 and 2024 fiscal years. The committee’s Republican co-chairs announced April 22 that the 2025 DHS plan had been blocked, but didn’t say why”). ↑
Erik Gunn. GOP lawmakers to unveil opioid settlement plan rewrite while Evers demands PFAS cleanup funds. Wisconsin Examiner. May 6, 2024. Accessed September 1, 2024 ↑
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