Will County board urges state to restore $10 million for Local Health Protection Grant
Get AI-powered insights, summaries, and transcripts
Subscribe
Summary
The Will County board unanimously adopted a resolution supporting a $10 million statewide increase in the Local Health Protection Grant, a state-distributed fund county health officials say is necessary to maintain essential public-health functions. Will County’s share would be roughly $300,000, the health department estimated.
The Will County board voted unanimously to back a state bill that would boost the Local Health Protection Grant by $10 million, county health officials said.
Aishwarya, the health equity manager at the Will County Health Department, told the board the grant is a statewide fund distributed to counties to fund essential public-health work, including environmental health and communicable disease prevention. She said the fund is required for a local entity to operate as a health department and described recent pullbacks in certain grant lines, including reductions after ARPA funding ended. "This is work that we absolutely have to do," Aishwarya said, urging the board to support the statewide increase so counties can retain core services.
The resolution references state and federal funding shifts and asks Springfield to restore state support; county staff clarified that the Local Health Protection Grant is distributed by the state, though the health department also receives separate federal grants that have been reduced. County officials said the county’s portion of the proposed $10 million increase would likely be in the vicinity of $300,000 more than current funding levels.
Members questioned whether the additional funds would be passed to standalone clinics (for example, a TB clinic) and were told the health department conducts disease investigation and supports affected people but does not directly allocate funds to separate clinical providers. The department said it will coordinate with relevant partners as grant funding increases permit.
Before the vote, some members expressed a desire for clear, state-focused language in the resolution rather than combined federal/state language, noting a preference to target Springfield directly on the state budget cuts. Aishwarya said the resolution was developed through the Northern Illinois Public Health Consortium (NIPIC) and adapted for Will County.
Perla called the roll after a motion and second to place the resolution on the floor; the recorded yes votes were Berkowitz, Brooks, Bullock, Butler, Hickey and Winfrey. The motion carried.
The board did not specify an implementation timeline beyond supporting the state effort; health department staff said they were continuing outreach to legislative sponsors and would provide updates to the county board as the bills advance.