Budget committee recommends paying for a $250,000 court program from opioid settlement money, not general fund

Auditor's office staff told the committee that the roughly $250,000 cost of Judge Ready's drug-treatment court program had been advertised out of both the county's general court budget and the opioid settlement fund, leaving the funding source undecided, and a committee member proposed advertising it as opioid-only so the county commissioners — not the budget committee — would make that call (1:02:08, 1:02:30); the committee then approved that recommendation on a voice vote. ▶︎ 1:15:52 — open the recording, cued to 1 hour 15 minutes 52 seconds

This is the second time this year the committee has revisited how to pay for the program: on August 12 it discussed shifting the cost to the county general fund because opioid settlement money is shrinking, and on August 24 it recommended keeping the cost on opioid funds instead and letting the commissioners make the final call ([Aug.

12: program identified at about $250,000, funded from opioid settlement money](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SI1Sw5K1LHE&t=6514)).