The Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly is thinking about expanding the borough’s opioid settlement grant program.
Since 2022, the borough has awarded grants to community organizations that help people on the Kenai Peninsula recover from the opioid epidemic. The awards vary in size and can be used for things like addiction treatment, support for people in recovery and prevention services.
The grant program was created by the borough assembly to distribute the opioid settlement money it receives. The settlements have brought money into communities around the country as pharmaceutical companies resolve lawsuits relating to their roles in the epidemic.
To date, the borough has signed onto three settlements and received $366,276.61.
On Tuesday, the assembly introduced an ordinance that would increase the number of grants the borough can award each funding cycle. The same legislation would also accept more than 100 thousand new dollars in settlement money and award grants to three more applicants.
Elizabeth Hardie administers grants for the borough. She told assembly members during a finance committee meeting the borough received eight grant applications last cycle, but was only able to give money to five because of the program limit.
She thinks the borough can accommodate more than five applicants each cycle. The borough doesn’t always know how much money it will have to give out and, for example, recently received a portion after grants had already been awarded.
“So instead of just sitting on that money for another period of time, maybe up to a year, we get it out there to the other programs that had made applications and had eligible projects ready to go,” Hardie said.
Kenai Peninsula Borough Mayor Peter Micciche said he supports awarding settlement money as it becomes available to get it where it needs to be.
“We are dealing with treatment providers that need every penny that they can get. And we’re providing what we have available,” he said.
Data from the CDC show opioid dispensing rates were consistently higher on the Kenai Peninsula than the national average between 2006 and 2020.
In 2022, the Alaska Department of Law announced the state would receive $58 million from a nationwide settlement with pharmaceutical companies Cardinal Health Inc., McKesson Corporation and AmerisourceBergen, and Johnson and Johnson.
The department announced in March that Alaska would receive another $10 million through a separate settlement with CVS Pharmacy.
Hardie said the borough currently determines grant award amounts by dividing the total amount of money available by the number of awardees. That ensures each applicant gets the same award amount and that all available money is distributed.
Multiple assembly members, including Mike Tupper, told Hardie they’d like to see the awards be more consistent, both in terms of value and distribution.
“Right now we’re making changes to a program that people have already applied to. So I get that there’s additional funding, but what if there’s 10 people that apply next year and there’s additional funding. Are we going to adjust it again? Or maybe we should think a little bit more about how we structure this so that it’s consistent year after year.”
In response, Borough Attorney Sean Kelley said he expects the timing and payment amounts to steady over time.
“It hasn’t settled into a rhyme or reason,” he said. “And maybe it will in the future as these start to kind of balance out and I think especially over the 18 years for distributors it might. But right now, it’s all just kind of in flux, so that’s why it’s hard to predict what the exact amounts are going to be.”
Micciche said regardless of when or how much money is received, the top focus should be connecting the aid with community groups. He proposed adding new guidelines to the borough program to help entities more easily navigate the grant process.
“We don’t know what to expect, at what speed or how often these are going to come in,” he said. “ … We do want to make sure that qualified providers that are actively practicing on the Kenai have the funding they need to, again, I will say it, save lives. It literally is life-saving treatment.”
Assembly members are scheduled to vote on the ordinance expanding the grant program during their June 4 meeting.