Texas’s Attorney General (AG) Ken Paxton demands local governments of the US state to agree to be part of a legal settlement about the opioid crisis. Texas could have a part of the settlement amount should enough cities agree to be involved in it. The state would use the partial amount as part of its response measure to the crisis.
According to The Texas Tribune reporter James Barragán, the challenge is to get enough Texas cities to be part of the settlement. Why? Because if the cities do so, they could not pursue other legal proceedings against the same companies that are involved in that settlement.
As for Barragán, Texas should make a particular number of its counties and cities join the legal agreement before an approval to release any part of the funds. Big counties in Texas, such as Bexar County and Dallas County, are more proximate to their court trials with a few of those distributors and opioid manufacturers. Barragán regards the above-mentioned as a challenging situation for Texas.
The key is to get the larger cities in Texas to be part of the settlement, as how much Texas would get depends on the number of local governments that do so.
A county such as the one in Dallas has found that tackling the crisis would cost it $10 billion in 30 years. Other counties have similar requirements for addressing the crisis. So, it is challenging for the counties to accept the partial amount of $1.50 billion available to Texas.
