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DECATUR, Ill. (WAND) – A south suburban House Democrat has filed a plan to help provide financial relief to communities hardest hit by storms this summer. The bill calls for Illinois to use money from the rainy day fund to lift up counties still recovering.
Rep. Anthony DeLuca (D-Chicago Heights) said he started to talk with the Illinois Emergency Management Agency about potential funding opportunities before the Trump administration denied disaster relief for Illinois. They started to draft language for a state relief plan in anticipation of FEMA’s rejection.
“We had complete devastation like we hadn’t seen, and it came repeatedly,” DeLuca said. “There were two storms in a row and three storms within five weeks.”
DeLuca said municipalities have absorbed a tremendous amount of the cleanup and restoration expenses. He stressed that local leaders did the best they could to respond with limited resources, but it is time for a funding boost.
His plan would allow IEMA to create emergency rules for a grant program with money from the budget stabilization fund. Local governments in Alexander, Champaign, Cook, DuPage, Ford, Fulton, Kane, Lake, LaSalle, Marshall, McLean, Pulaski, Tazewell, Vermilion, and Will counties would be eligible for relief funds.
“There would be an option for the municipality, if they so choose, to create a program that could reimburse individual homeowners,” DeLuca said. “They could have that ability.”
The moderate Democrat said this will be one of his top priorities during veto session, and he believes the bill should gain strong bipartisan support.
“There is nothing partisan about a tornado coming through and creating damage regardless of the area, whether it’s a Republican area or a Democrat area,” DeLuca said.
Lawmakers will return to Springfield to start veto session November 17. The General Assembly is only scheduled to be in session three days next month and three days in December.