Nevertheless, New York is taking a hands-off approach to how local governments spend settlement funds. Not the state agency that has overseen the rollout of millions of New York’s opioid settlement funds. The state has secured over $3 billion in settlement funds to be spent through 2040. Cunningham said more than half of opioid settlement dollars go from the attorney general through a “third party” to cities and counties. “Let’s say the opioid settlement funds are doing everything that they say they’re doing in other parts of the state.