As millions of dollars of settlement money have flowed into Alaska, the Fairbanks North Star Borough has found itself in a difficult position. With limited health and social services powers, the government has found itself unable to accept the money and pass it on to community health programs.
That could change in this fall’s Oct. 4 election, where voters will be asked to narrowly expand the borough’s powers to accept money from settlements with Teva, Allergan, CVS, Walgreens and Walmart. If approved, borough officials expect about $30,000 in additional opioid treatment money to flow into the community every year for more than a decade.
Borough Assemblymember Savannah Fletcher, who voted along with the rest of the FNSB assembly to send the question to voters, told The Alaska Current that the vote is simple.
“It’s a free $30,000 that if we don’t take it, then it doesn’t go to the state. It goes right back to the pharmaceutical companies’ pockets,” she said. “The question is, do we want to get a free $30K every year, or do we not?”
As is the case when there’s talk about expanding the powers of government, there was some pushback against bringing the proposition to voters, but Fletcher said there were several changes made by the assembly to address those concerns. That includes a sunset of the new law once all opioid settlement funds are expended and limited to the noted companies.
“If there was a new settlement 30 years from now, we would have to vote anew,” she said.
The money would flow out under the borough’s already-existing community grant programs, funded with other pass-through grants. Because the new money comes from settlements rather than grants, the law change was needed in the first place.
Borough Mayor Bryce Ward, who initially brought forward the ordinance, said those community organizations already have a good track record with helping treat the long-lasting impacts of opioid abuse.
“I would envision providing these funds to organizations the same way we do with other pass-through grants by using our health and social services commission,” Ward said, according to a report by the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner. “They have a good track record with that … they are exceptionally qualified to make those decisions.”
Matt Acuña Buxton is a long-time political reporter who has written for the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner and The Midnight Sun political blog. He also authors the daily politics newsletter, The Alaska Memo, and can frequently be found live-tweeting public meetings on Twitter.
