Treatment money spent elsewhere, certified as programs, and nobody checked.
Origin
This project is, at present, one person. I live in Washington Township, Gloucester County. In April 2026 I heard the Township had installed Flock license plate reader cameras. I read the council resolution. The money came from opioid settlement funds. The records that followed showed the rest. The Township had spent the money on cameras and police vehicles. It had certified to the State that the money went to a drug education program. That program does not exist.
Mission
This project traces New Jersey’s opioid settlement money from the State report to the town ledger. We hold what a jurisdiction certified against what its own books show, in public, with the documents attached. Misused money should be recouped. Anyone who knowingly certified a false report to the State should answer for it. Read how we check, and what the grade measures.
Why this matters
The money comes from settlements with the companies that made and distributed opioids. It exists to abate the crisis: treatment, recovery, prevention, harm reduction. Nationally, at least 85 percent of the payments must go to remediation. New Jersey is stricter. In January 2022 the counties and towns signed an agreement with the State. It lets a town spend no more than 5 percent on administrative expenses. Every other dollar must go to those uses. No share of the money is free to spend on anything else. It requires the money to supplement local spending, not replace it. It also makes the annual report the only check on compliance. A dollar on a camera or a salary line is a dollar not spent on someone who needed it. The clauses are quoted in full in the methodology.
What this can and cannot do
This project exists to shine a light on fraud upon the State and its citizens. It cannot do the one thing only the State can do. The State can enforce the agreement and hold towns accountable. Publishing the misuse is aimed at getting that wrong corrected. In July 2025 the Acting State Comptroller, Kevin D. Walsh, published an investigation of Irvington. It found that the town misused its settlement money. It also found the State’s oversight of local spending inadequate. Irvington sued to block the report. It lost at the trial court, the Appellate Division and the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court declined review the day the report was released. Its defamation suit against the Comptroller was dismissed. The Comptroller’s recommendations remain open. No recoupment or enforcement against Irvington, or any other town or county, has followed, as far as the public record shows.
Certified to the State, checked against the books.
Fig. 1 · Subdivision Annual Opioid Abatement Report and the account detail the jurisdiction produced, both public records · open the jurisdiction page
The only check on the money is a self filed form.
No agency reconciles that form to the ledger it came from. No agency penalizes a false one, and no agency recovers money that was misused.
- Program name
- Drug Education
- Primary category
- Primary Prevention, Education and Training
- Recipient
- Washington Township Police Department
- People served
- 500 schoolchildren · launched 09/18/2023
- Amount expended
- $134,321.38
- Certified by
- Chief Financial Officer
Reconciled by this project, not the State
The form above went to the State and was accepted. The account below sat in the same building the whole time. Nobody laid one over the other. That is the entire gap this project works in, and it is the reason a dollar certified to a program that does not exist stays certified.
Read the methodologyWhat the record shows so far.
207
Jurisdictions graded
207
Ledgers obtained
3,458
Source documents online
11,607
Ledger lines read
Reader funded. Nothing from a party.
This project is funded by readers. It takes no money from any party to the opioid settlements, from any vendor named on this site, from any jurisdiction graded here, or from any agency that administers settlement funds. It carries no advertising and sells no data.
The costs are small and dull. Public records fees, copying and certified mail, hosting, and filing fees when a jurisdiction refuses to produce its ledger. Contributions are not tax deductible yet and buy no influence over a grade, because grades are a result of the subdivision's own records.
How this project is fundedThe data is public. Use it.
Every figure resolves to a document and a page. Built for the people who can act on it.
For legislators and staff
The oversight record and the recommendations the State has left open.
Legislator resourcesFor reporters
Source documents by town, the methodology, embeddable reconciliation cards, and a mailbox that answers.
Media resourcesFor residents and organizers
How to look up a town, how to read the grade, how to file a records request, and how to bring a finding to a council meeting.
Activist resourcesWho runs this project?
One resident of Washington Township in Gloucester County. Nothing here depends on who did the work. Every figure links to the record it came from, and anyone can check it.Read the methodology
Does the State not already check this?
The State collects a report from each town every year. No agency compares that report to the town's own ledger. This project requests the ledger, puts the two side by side and publishes both.How the comparison works
Can this project make a town pay the money back?
No. Only the State can enforce the agreement. The State Comptroller found that Irvington misspent its money, and no recoupment or enforcement has followed, as far as the public record shows. This project puts the records in front of the people who can act.For legislators
Who pays for this?
Readers do. The project takes no money from any party to the settlements, any vendor named here, any jurisdiction graded here or any agency that administers the funds. Contributions are not tax deductible yet.How this project is funded
When will my town be here?
A town is added when its records arrive. That takes a records request, the ledger for its opioid account and its reports to the State. Each town page shows what that town has produced.Every town