The House approved House Bill 658 to establish a Medicaid trust fund for addiction recovery that backers say will centralize settlement, grant and private funds to support statewide recovery services.

Representative Turner, the bill’s sponsor, said the fund is intended to give addiction recovery organizations a vehicle to collect and coordinate dollars — including settlement proceeds or other monies — that are currently difficult for individual groups to manage. “We’re just creating a fund for the addictive recovery trust fund so they can collect some fees or some settlement, some judgments, some own dollars they may generate,” Turner said on the floor.

Key context: sponsors emphasized that the trust fund is not general‑fund spending and will not automatically draw from the state’s operating budget. Turner said the fund would allow groups to pursue federal grants and to better handle settlement proceeds. Members asked whether the fund would redirect existing state payments; Turner responded that it would not come from the general fund and described the fund as a mechanism for collecting non‑general funds.

Representative Phelps and others questioned how the fund would be administered and whether it would be housed with the treasurer or rely on the attorney general’s settlement processes; Turner said settlements typically flow through the attorney general and that the treasurer would likely hold funds once received.

The bill passed on final passage with a roll call recorded in the transcript as 90 yays and 6 nays.

Votes at a glance
House Bill 658 — Final passage: transcript roll call recorded as 90 yays, 6 nays.