(The Center Square) – An Illinois state legislator is relieved a recent federal spending bill included taxpayer funds for St. Clair and Washington counties.
Those counties are set to receive $89.5 million of taxpayer funds in federal disaster aid to support recovery efforts following a string of severe storms and tornadoes last summer. State Sen. Terri Bryant’s district includes parts of both counties.
“I’m going to sound very partisan in this, but quite often under the Biden administration and the Pritzker administration, deep southern Illinois gets forgotten and it’s not uncommon for St. Clair County to get some of the money because often it’s considered the Metro East in addition to being southern Illinois,” said Bryant, R-Murphysboro. “Washington County doesn’t always get the relief that they need.”
Bryant explained in July 2024, the area experienced an enormous amount of flooding and that water covered up I-64. At the time, hundreds of people in Nashville, Illinois, were ordered to evacuate as water rolled over the top of a dam.
“I’m going to sound a little snarky, but we often, in our region, are kind of a forgotten people in Illinois. To have Congressman [Mike] Bost advocate for keeping that relief, that feels good,” Bryant told The Center Square. “That’s a large agricultural area, and I think sometimes people think that if it’s not a whole lot of buildings, it’s not a whole lot of houses, that it’s insignificant. But, you know, there are farmers that lost not just buildings, but vast areas of crop. We’re happy to be able to recoup some of that.”
Bost, R-Murphysboro, said on social media, “the funding, which was included in December’s end-of-year government spending bill, will be critical in rebuilding existing infrastructure and bolstering defenses against future storms and flooding.”
Bryant said she’s in an area where people are “very frustrated right now.”
“Under [the Illinois Clean Energy Jobs Act], we have that Prairie State Energy Campus that’s going to close in 2035. People are trying to figure out, ‘how are we going to meet our energy needs? How are we going to fill the jobs that are going to be lost?’” Bryant said. “And then, when you hit them with a natural disaster on top of the manmade disasters, that the state of Illinois continues to beat hell out of Southern Illinois, and once in a while get thrown a bone, it’s nice to have that.”
CEJA sets Illinois on a path to a 100% alternative energy like wind and solar by 2050. The law mandates closure of coal and gas plants that cannot meet carbon emissions reductions. If Prairie State fails to meet the 2035 emissions reduction target, it could face closure or further regulatory actions.
“I tell people a lot of times, ‘we know we’re not going to get a meaty bone.’ So, if we even just get a bone, we’re happy. In this case, there’ll be some relief that’s much needed,” Bryant said.
