Gov. Evers signs law to grab Wisconsin’s share of national opioid settlement
(The Center Square) – Wisconsin is going to get it’s share of the national opioid settlement, even if Gov. Tony Evers has to share the power to spend it with lawmakers.
The governor on Tuesday signed the state law guaranteeing Wisconsin won’t miss out on part of the $26 billion that drug makers are getting ready to pay the state for how opioid pain pills were marketed and sold.
“I haven’t heard of any specific numbers,” Evers said at a statehouse news conference. “I know there were some thrown around last February, but I don’t know the most recent.”
The most recent reports say Wisconsin could see as much as $400 million from the settlement.
The governor said he reluctantly signed the law.
“I didn’t like the bill essentially giving the Joint Finance Committee veto power on what happens,” Evers explained. “That was a direct shot across the bow.”
The governor said his administration is in the middle of a lawsuit challenging the legislature’s power to have a say in settlements involving Wisconsin. The Republican-controlled Assembly and Senate approved that law weeks before Evers took office in 2019. Evers and Democratic Attorney General Josh Kaul have been fighting to get it overturned ever since.
In the end, however, Evers said he wanted to make sure that communities in Wisconsin got their share of the opioid settlement.
“For me, it had to be about how we get the money to the counties as quickly as possible,” Evers said.
Under the new state law, 70% of the money that Wisconsin gets will go directly to counties. The counties will then share the money with Wisconsin;s cities, villages, and towns. The rest will either go to the state itself or to other groups.
There’s no word just when Wisconsin will see its portion of the opioid settlement.
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