Madison County could lose funding if it defies stay-at-home order, IL governor says
Governor J.B. Pritzker said during his daily press briefing Tuesday that counties and cities that defy his five-phase plan put in place to reopen Illinois could lose state and federal funding.
The comments came just hours before board members in Madison County are set to vote on enacting their own reopening plan.
“We would consider that,” he said in answer to a question from the Belleville News-Democrat. “The state always provides a lot of support to cities and counties. There are a number of enforcement utilities available to us and I don’t want to use those.
The governor added that federal funds that must pass through the state could also be restrained.
The Madison County Board of Health is scheduled to vote on a reopening plan during a meeting at 5 p.m. today that would begin the opening up of the county tomorrow. According to the plan, if all Health Department guidelines were following the entire county would be open by late May.
Last week the Tom DeVore, a Bond County attorney who is leading the charge against Pritzker’s stay-at-home order, told the board the extension of the emergency order was unconstitutional. DeVore represents clients from throughout Illinois, including state Rep. Darren Bailey (R-Xenia). and a gym in St. Clair County that reopened in defiance of the Pritzker’s order.
Pritzker said the people who are going against the state stay-at-home order aren’t listening to science and instead are listening to partisan rhetoric or their gut.
“The vast majority of those counties and individuals, those business owners are not talking to epidemiologists, they’re not talking to scientists — in fact, they’re not relying on science in any way whatsoever to make their decision,” Pritzker said. “They are putting the patrons of their businesses and the people who live in their counties and cities in danger when they simply break the rules, break the laws, in fact, when they decide they want to go it alone.”
He warned that COVID-19 is still in Illinois and is still killing people.
“Everyone wanting to go back and open their businesses and put people at risk willy-nilly need to look at the data, take a look at the science and recognize we’re going to have more people in the hospital and more people dying if we don’t follow a gradual reopening,” he said.
This story was originally published May 12, 2020 at 3:57 PM with the headline "Madison County could lose funding if it defies stay-at-home order, IL governor says."