A proposed approach for spending millions of opioid settlement dollars and marijuana revenues in the coming years will head to Grand Traverse County commissioners for review at their June 18 meeting.

A bipartisan ad hoc committee of commissioners – including Ashlea Walter, Darryl Nelson, and Lauren Flynn – met multiple times this year with county staff and community representatives to develop proposed spending plans for opioid and marijuana funds. Walter, who proposed the committee, previously emphasized that its job wouldn’t be to recommend specifically where to allocate dollars – just to establish the framework by which commissioners will make those decisions. Another taskforce comprised of community members previously met for months to create specific recommendations on how to locally spend opioid funds, which total approximately $1.65 million currently and are expected to reach $5.8 million over several years.  

Walter tells The Ticker that the ad hoc committee built on the work of that taskforce to create a process for distributing funds “both for internal needs and for community partners.” The opioid plan identifies five core values or spending principles to guide decision-making, including “spend to save lives,” “use evidence-based guides to drive spending,” “focus on class inequities,” “develop a fair and transparent process for determining where to spend funds,” and “invest in youth prevention.”

Funding is recommended to be split into two tracks, with the exact allocations for each to be determined by commissioners. Track A would support county departments already providing services connected to substance use disorders, such as the health department and law enforcement. A committee primarily comprised of county staff/representatives would oversee Track A. Track B would be externally focused under a partnership with the Grand Traverse Regional Community Foundation (GTRCF) to award annual grants to community partners. A separate committee – comprised primarily of community representatives – is proposed to oversee Track B.

Grand Traverse County Deputy Health Officer Mike Lahey says GTRCF’s involvement will be useful given the organization’s experience in administering grants, a time and labor-intensive process that exceeds the county’s internal capabilities. “We could have that capacity in the future, but in the here and now we don’t,” Lahey says. “They do a really good job of that (at GTRCF).” Walter agrees, saying that the process of allocating over $18 million in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds showed that the “county isn’t set up to be a granting agency. We don’t have the resources to do it...this proposed process will work with our partners to get the funding out into the community.”

Commissioners will also consider a proposed spending plan for marijuana revenues. The county – which had sixteen microbusinesses or retail establishments operating in 2024, including 13 in the City of Traverse City, two in Green Lake Township, and one in Fife Lake Township – received $886,000 in revenues last year. Lacking an established spending policy, commissioners made piecemeal allocations from that funding including $500,000 to Camp Greilick, $150,000 to Pine Rest for community child psychiatry services, and $125,000 commitments for both 2024 and 2025 to Northern Michigan Supportive Housing. Grand Traverse County is slated to receive $931,658 in marijuana revenues this year – a five-plus percent increase over last year.

As with opioid funds, the marijuana spending plan proposes dividing revenues between internal and external uses. Commissioners would receive a report each April on the expected amount of marijuana funds for that year, then determine how much to allocate for county versus community purposes. Internal spending would support the four goals in the county’s 2024-2027 strategic plan, including planning for sustainable growth and innovation, recruiting and retaining qualified staff, building trust and transparency, and focusing on community needs.

External funds would be awarded in amounts ranging from $25,000 to $100,000 through an application process available to nonprofits, public/private/charter schools, intermediate school districts, college and universities, places of worship/religious institutions, and economic development organizations and corporations. For the $931,658 in 2025 revenues, for example, the committee recommends allocating $431,658 internally to “future facilities renovations, remodeling, or new construction projects, which fall under strategic plan goal one – plan for sustainable growth and innovation,” according to the proposal. “The remaining amount, $500,000, will be disbursed to external agencies through a competitive application and award process.”

At last week’s county commission meeting, some residents advocated for specific funding uses during public comment. Kate Dahlstrom – president of mental health organization NAMI Grand Traverse and a member of the community advisory group for the new Grand Traverse Mental Health Crisis and Access Center – expressed deep concerns about the ongoing sustainability of the center. Particularly due to financial woes facing one of the key project partners and service providers, the Northern Lakes Community Mental Health Authority, Dahlstorm urged commissioners to use marijuana and/or opioid revenues toward an annual funding allocation to the center. Commissioners are expected to hear a status update on the mental health center and its plans for sustainability at their August 6 meeting.

Before During and After Incarceration co-founder Toni Stanfield advocated prioritizing funding for the Grand Traverse County Jail, in particular for mental health and substance abuse treatment options for inmates. Such allocations would be “humane, smart, and just – and aligned with the intended use of those public funds,” she said. Stanfield said commissioners “have the chance to be a county that leads with compassion.”

Walter says she’s satisfied with the proposed spending plans for both opioid and marijuana funds and is hopeful they’ll be supported by the board, which will allow the county to kick off the next crucial phase of actually distributing funds. Noting the amount of money involved is “not insignificant,” Walter said there’s a sense of urgency in putting dollars to work in the community after a protracted process to determine how to spend them. “I wish that it hadn’t taken us this long to figure things out, but I do feel good about where we are at with it,” she says.