Years after getting $9M in opioid settlement, Lexington still undecided on how to use it
The city of Lexington was awarded $9 million for an opioid settlement in late 2022, and despite extensive discussions about how to use it, the plan for spending that money remains up in the air.
The Lexington-Fayette Urban County Council spent nearly two hours Tuesday debating how the funds should be spent after reviewing a spending plan developed by Mayor Linda Gorton’s administration.
The money has accrued interest over the last few years, bumping that initial $9 million to nearly $10 million. The money comes from legal settlements between hundreds of U.S. cities and pharmacy companies accused of overprescribing powerful opiates. Several similar lawsuits are still ongoing and settlements continue to be made.
From 2023 to 2025, a commission created by the mayor drafted several recommendations for how the settlement funds should be spent.
Those recommendations were then prioritized by the mayor, although it took around six months for the mayor to bring those recommendations to the council after the commission wrapped up its work. Gorton’s prioritized spending plan also did not include funding for all recommendations, and even included a proposal to leave $1.8 million aside for future discussion.
Vice Mayor Dan Wu said he was frustrated this money has been in limbo for so long.
“The commission has been working for over three years, and we’ve had this money for almost as long,” Wu said. “I appreciate the idea of deliberation, but at this point with this $9 million, if we still have question marks around some of this money — like we’re not sure what we do with it — I’m disappointed in that.”
“Opioids for our community is a crisis, and we need to act like it,” Wu added.
Tuesday’s council meeting featured a long debate over how the money should be spent, how quickly it should be spent and whether council should have a separate meeting to make final decisions.
Shayla Lynch, who represents Lexington’s 2nd District, was adamant that the Tuesday meeting was the right venue for decision-making.
“We’re in the meeting,” Lynch said. “Let’s have the discussion now. Let’s make the decision now. This is what we’re all here for, what we’re supposed to be doing — making decisions.”
Where will Lexington’s opioid settlement money go?
The council did make decisions on how a significant portion of the money will be used, allocating $3 million toward a grant program for nonprofits for addressing the opioid epidemic. The council also decided to reserve $2.2 million for any upcoming policies or programs that come from the task force on homelessness, which is still meeting to craft recommended steps to address homelessness in Lexington.
Both of those allocations were recommended by the opioid settlement commission and the mayor, although Gorton only suggested putting $2 million into the grant pool.
The grant program will hopefully be open for applications starting this summer, social services commissioner Kacy Allen-Bryant told the council.
The remaining money is unassigned. The council will resume discussions in an April 28 work session.
The commission did make other recommendations, but the mayor didn’t put them in her recommendations to give to council. Those recommendations included putting money toward recovery programs at the Fayette County Detention Center, increasing funding for the city’s Substance Use Disorder Intervention office, and a pilot symposium event for treatment providers and addiction survivors.
Gorton did propose allocating $3 million into an endowment-like account that would accrue interest over time, which the city could use for substance use services. She also recommended that 25% of any future opioid settlement funds be placed in that same account.
That would mean the city would be saving nearly a third of the money, and would leave roughly 20% unspent.
For some nonprofit leaders, the opioid epidemic is too urgent to hold onto that much money.
Ashleigh Dunsmoor, advocacy and engagement director for the Lexington Nonprofit Coalition, said the commission only recommended allocating a “reasonable” $1 million to an interest-bearing account now and placing 10% of future funds into the account in the future.
The city is expected to receive an additional $21 million in opioid settlements in the next 12 years. While it’s not certain when that money will be dispersed, nor in what increments, Dunsmoor said the incoming money negates the need to place so much money into savings.
“Placing $3 million today and 25% (of) all future allocations into an interest account seems out of step with the intent of the funds, which is to respond to the crisis that exists today,” Dunsmoor said. “To save for the future also assumes this crisis will continue into the future and perhaps indefinitely.”
But Allen-Bryant said the settlement documents say “there are no guarantees regarding the amounts or timing of any future payments,” so the city should not bank on getting the full additional $21 million it was originally estimated to receive.
Federal uncertainties also require a cautious approach, Allen-Bryant argued. A grant that funds much of the city’s social services office was cut by the Trump administration last year, only to be restored less than 24 hours later.
“We cannot go ahead and allocate all $9 million, and then these unknown factors come to fruition that changes up the whole entire game,” she said.
