Attorney General Jim Hood announced Thursday that $34.4 million recovered mostly from a lawsuit settlement with the Moody’s Corporation was delivered to the state treasury.Hood had announced in January the state would receive more than $26 million from the Moody’s settlement. as part of a settlement the credit rating agency made with 21 states, the District of Columbia and the federal government.

Hood said the settlement can help the state with its revenue shortfalls as lawmakers work to set a state budget for the coming year.

Hood is urging the Legislature to appropriate about $7 million of the money to the Department of Mental Health to reopen the 25-bed Chemical Dependency Unit for men at the Mississippi State Hospital at Whitfield, and to fund the state’s Intellectual Disabilities/Developmental Disabilities Home and Community Based Waiver program.

After an $8.3 million cut to its current-year budget, the Department of Mental Health closed two Chemical Dependency Units for men at the Mississippi State Hospital and East Mississippi Hospital, according to Hood. Since then, mid-year budget cuts totaling $3.5 million have further restricted the department’s finances.

Senate Appropriations Chairman Buck Clarke, R-Hollandale, has said the general fund budget recommendation for the Department of Mental Health is about $4.2 million less than was appropriated for this year.

“Many counties have relied on the men’s drug and alcohol facility at Whitfield to treat those committed by court order to stay at Whitfield until they are released,” Hood said in a statement. “I have received pleas from lawyers for and family members of men committed for drug and alcohol treatment to see if we can reopen the Whitfield unit.”

In the last year, Hood has delivered two checks totaling more than $100 million in addition to this $34.4 million check on Thursday.