A new Spotlight PA analysis has broken down the opioid settlement payments Pennsylvania counties are receiving to help them respond to the drug epidemic, writes Ed Mahon and Kate Giammarise of WESA.

Overall, the payments for county governments and county district attorney offices were about $6.50 per resident across the state last year, but there were big differences in how much individual counties received.

The lowest in the state was a payment of $1.13 per resident in Centre County and the highest was $23.23 per resident in Cameron County.

Montgomery County received at total of $3,459,616 in 2022 payments and is estimated to receive $2,345,596 in 2023.

Montco missed out on almost $1 million last year because not all their more densely populated municipalities signed onto the agreement on time.

The formula used to calculate payments, according to Brett Hambright, a spokesperson for the Pennsylvania attorney general’s office, “considers the level of need in the respective counties, and population does not necessarily correlate with the biggest need.”

He explained that there are some rural counties who “had some of the highest rates of addiction in the state.”

The settlements from Johnson & Johnson and drug distributors AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health and McKesson are estimated to bring about $1 billion to Pennsylvania over 18 years.

Read more about how Pennsylvania’s opioid settlement is divvied up at WHYY.

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