What you need to know:
- Mat-Su officials will distribute millions in opioid addiction relief funding to local organizations under a new agreement that allows Palmer, Wasilla and Houston to share their health powers with the borough. The plan was approved by the Borough Assembly last week.
- A borough-run grant program will manage the distribution of funds, following a 2023 plan that allocates specific percentages to treatment, prevention, recovery, harm reduction and media outreach. Grant applications will be reviewed by a committee, which will include representatives from Wasilla, Houston and Palmer and addiction treatment advocates.
- While Wasilla and Houston supported the plan unanimously, Palmer approved it after a heated debate. The program is expected to pump millions into addiction relief efforts across the borough.
PALMER — Mat-Su officials will distribute millions in opioid addiction relief funding under a new partnership between the region’s cities and the borough approved by the Assembly last week.
The partnership allows officials to use more than $2 million that the borough will receive from a national opioid settlement to pay for a wide array of addiction treatment, prevention, recovery, and harm-reduction programs in the region.
The Matanuska-Susitna Borough Assembly unanimously approved the measure during a regular meeting Tuesday.
The funding will be distributed through a borough-run grant program overseen by a committee that will include city representatives as well as addiction treatment advocates, Assistant Borough Manager George Hays said during the meeting. Grants will be distributed over a three- to five-year period, he said.
Just how that money is passed out will follow a plan approved by the Assembly in 2023, which requires the borough to spend 30% of the settlement money on treatment, 30% on prevention, 10% on recovery, 10% on harm reduction, and, for the first five years only, 20% on media efforts about the grant program.
A specific plan for forming the committee is still under development and will be presented to the assembly at a future meeting, Hays said.
Mat-Su has the highest rate of opioid overdoses in Alaska, according to state data. Alaska was one of five states to see an increase in opioid deaths between 2023 and 2024, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The funding is part of more than $50 billion in settlement payments from opioid pharmaceutical companies distributed to states and local governments nationwide. The borough has received $850,000 so far and expects to see up to $3 million by 2038, borough Attorney Nick Spiropoulos said during the meeting. It is one of nine Alaska municipalities to receive the payout, he said.
The borough first received settlement funds in 2023 but has been unable to distribute them beyond training and education programs because it lacks health powers under the state constitution.
The new partnership with the cities will unlock that funding by allowing the borough to distribute the money by temporarily borrowing a limited version of those powers from Palmer, Wasilla, and Houston. Without that arrangement, the borough would need to obtain health powers through a ballot measure.
Rules overseeing the plan, and approved by each of the cities, require the borough to use the shared powers only for opioid addiction treatment-related efforts.
While the Houston and Wasilla city councils unanimously approved the plan earlier this year, the topic sparked tense debate in Palmer.
The types of services allowed under the national settlement, such as needle exchange and Suboxone distribution, could draw individuals seeking those services to city streets, one Palmer city council member said.
“When you want a late-night snack from Taco Bell at nine o’clock at night and you go outside to get in your car, and there’s the Red Cross there – because they’ve been given money to come out into your streets and literally sit out there and hand out needles and Suboxone to the community – then you have people that are running around in your little area where they just handed them out, drugged out on synthetic heroin. I’m sorry, but that’s what’s going to happen here,” Council member Victoria Hudson said during a July 8 Palmer City Council meeting. “It’s going to be really crazy when you have a naked person taking a shower on your front porch.”
Borough officials said they have no specific plans to fund needle exchange or Suboxone programs. Any grant applications will require committee approval, they said. The cities may also revoke the shared powers at any time, according to the measure.
The Palmer City Council ultimately approved the health powers measure in a 5-1 vote, with Hudson voting no.
-- Contact Amy Bushatz at contact@matsusentinel.com
