As budget season begins, the Board of Lewis County Commissioners could be looking for new ways to fund programs meant to address the opioid crisis on a local level.
During a county manager wrapup meeting with the commissioners on Monday, Aug. 25, Lewis County Budget Administrator Becky Butler spoke with board members about a new agreement that would bring more opioid settlement funds to Lewis County.
As part of the discussion, she informed the commissioners that funds received by opioid settlements currently would not be enough to continue funding the programs they are supporting this year.
Lewis County has been receiving opioid settlement funds under a statewide agreement called the One Washington Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) since 2022, and has received just under $1.9 million in settlement funds to date, including roughly $1.3 million in 2024 alone. The county was slow to spend the funds in the first few years, but allocated roughly $1 million of the settlement funds for a variety of programs in 2025.
The spending will go to a list of one-time expenditures, including a $50,000 purchase of overdose-reversing medication naloxone for county departments, $115,000 for the Youth Advocacy Center through the Community Action Council, $600,000 for Lewis County Jail substance use disorder and mental health treatment and, finally, $376,118 for the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office Enforcement Team.
Despite being considered one-time expenditures, much of the spending supports programs or initiatives the county would like to continue.
The county now faces a potential shortfall of the settlement funds if it hopes to support the same programs in 2026. The $1 million in expenses would lead to a $200,000 shortfall. Without additional settlements, the county is set to receive roughly $230,000 a year in settlement funds. While additional settlement funds could alleviate the problem in the short term, it is uncertain if the settlement funds will be enough to cover the costs into the future.
“You can see by that future projection that if you were to maintain the programs that you've approved, we would not have sufficient funds in 2026 to continue those programs,” Butler said.
“So that's the information I wanted to provide, and then I've also let the sheriff's office know, because they have two large programs coming out of these funds for 2025.”
Washington State Attorney General Nick Brown announced on Friday, July 25, that Washington could receive more than $16 million as part of a $720 million nationwide settlement. Local governments have until the end of September to opt into the settlement to receive opioid funds.
The new settlement is an agreement with eight drug manufacturers that produce opioid pills. According to Lewis County, the prosecutor’s office and outside counsel are set to make a recommendation on whether the county should opt into the agreement ahead of the September deadline.
According to a news release from the Attorney General’s Office, the settlement makes other stipulations in addition to the settlement payments. The two most significant include some states qualifying to either receive free pharmaceuticals from the relevant companies or cash in lieu of the products as well as restrictions on some of the companies’ abilities to market and manufacture opioids in different states.
Lewis County first opted into the One Washington MOU in 2022 when the state first began securing opioid settlement funds. Eligible local governments, meaning Washington's county and city governments, were able to opt into the agreement to receive a portion of the settlement funds.
Under the One Washington MOU, funds given to the state as part of a host of opioid settlement deals achieved by the Washington state Attorney General’s Office and its counterparts around the country are split 50/50 with half going to the state and the other half being split between local governments that opt in. Federally recognized tribes in the state can also benefit from the settlement deals; however, their portion comes from the state’s side, with 20% of the state’s settlement funds going to tribes.
Under the memorandum, governments are required to spend the settlement funds in certain ways that address the opioid crisis. Approved spending falls under three major categories, including treatment, prevention and “other strategies.” More specifically, the funds can be used for purchasing naloxone, responding to drug overdoses and funding opioid use disorder, substance use disorder or mental health treatment in local jails or communities.
The funds being sent to Washington state's local governments are meant specifically to offset negative impacts of the opioid crisis as specifically laid out in the One Washington MOU.
“The people of the State of Washington and its communities have been harmed by entities within the Pharmaceutical Supply Chain who manufacture, distribute, and disperse prescription opioids,” reads the first line of the agreement.
For more information on Washington state’s opioid settlements, visit the Washington Attorney General’s website or https://tinyurl.com/yc2zffzs.
