Members of Mississippi’s Opioid Settlement Fund Advisory Council said Tuesday that contract terms requiring reimbursement every three months are keeping some awardees from signing grants and could delay use of roughly $50 million lawmakers approved earlier this year, Mississippi Today reported.
The agreements, which were to take effect July 1, call for organizations to be reimbursed after each three-month period of work. Some selected organizations told council members they cannot absorb the upfront costs required to start projects under that arrangement, Mississippi Today said.
Communicare, a north Mississippi community mental health center awarded $5.2 million to build a pediatric emergency and long-term residential treatment center in Panola County, told the council it cannot move forward under the current contract terms. Melody Madaris, Communicare’s executive director and a council member, said at the meeting, “There’s no way that our agency can purchase that building and wait for the reimbursement for an entire quarter.” She told Mississippi Today she has not signed the contract.
Deputy Attorney General Doug Miracle, who chaired the meeting for Attorney General Lynn Fitch, told members that less than half of the grant agreements Fitch’s office was responsible for had been signed and returned, according to Mississippi Today. Sen. Nicole Boyd, R-Oxford, a council member, said she was receiving texts from applicants who warned the three-month wait could prevent them from starting work. A KFF Health News investigation found Mississippi was the only state that had not spent any of the portion of opioid settlement funds designated for addiction response as of 2024, Mississippi Today noted.
In a roll call vote, the council agreed to let applicants who applied in 2025 propose alternative fund disbursement arrangements for their contracts and said it would review requests at its next meeting, which Deputy Attorney General Miracle said would take place within two weeks. Miracle voted against the motion, warning that changing council-approved contracts could further delay use of the funds. The council did not specify how applicants should request changes. MaryAsa Lee, communications director for the attorney general’s office, did not respond to an emailed request for clarification, and Miracle declined a Mississippi Today interview, the outlet reported.
Jon Ross Myers is the executive editor and publisher of the Mississippi News Network, Mississippi's largest digital only media company. He can be reached at editor@tippahnews.com
