Cook County Among 15 Counties That Could Tap a State Storm-Relief Grant Program Under a New Springfield Bill

Cook County's storm-battered suburbs could get a second chance at relief money — this time from Springfield instead of Washington. State Rep. Anthony DeLuca, a Chicago Heights Democrat, has filed a bill that would let the Illinois Emergency Management Agency set up a grant program, on emergency rules, paid for from the state's budget stabilization fund — the rainy day fund — for local governments still recovering from this summer's storms.

Fifteen counties would be eligible, and the Chicago region is well represented on the list: Cook, DuPage, Kane, Lake and Will counties are all named, alongside Alexander, Champaign, Ford, Fulton, LaSalle, Marshall, McLean, Pulaski, Tazewell and Vermilion. The bill exists because the federal answer was no — DeLuca said he began talking with IEMA about state funding before the Trump administration denied disaster relief for Illinois, and drafted the plan in anticipation of FEMA's rejection.

The costs, for now, sit with city halls. Municipalities absorbed a tremendous amount of the cleanup and restoration expense after repeated storms — DeLuca described 'complete devastation like we hadn't seen,' with two storms in a row and three within five weeks in the hardest-hit areas. His plan would also give municipalities the option to create a program that reimburses individual homeowners, if they choose to.

The bill's road runs through the veto session. Lawmakers return to Springfield on Nov. 17, with only three session days scheduled in November and three in December, and DeLuca says the measure will be one of his top priorities in that window. His pitch for support is deliberately plain, as he put it to WAND: '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.'