As state officials and the mayors of South Dakota’s two largest cities look at how to best use national opioid settlement dollars to expand treatment options, counties are now being asked to decide if they want a share of those funds — and how they’d use them.
Moody County State’s Attorney Paul Lewis told county commissioners this past week that he’d been contacted about potential county use of settlement funds. Each county is entitled to a portion of the agreement, with about 30% of the state’s $79 million settlement going to local governments over the next 18 years. That’s roughly $23.7 million statewide. Smaller counties could receive tens of thousands, while larger counties such as Minnehaha and Pennington may see hundreds of thousands.
The amount Moody County may receive however, remains unknown…