The U.S. House and Senate finalized and approved the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan Act and President Biden signed the Act into law earlier this afternoon.

The plan includes $65.1 billion in direct, flexible funding for counties as part of the State and Local Fiscal and Recovery Funds. For Illinois, this would mean an estimated allocation for counties of $2.5 billion. This is a substantial amount of money for counties and it can be used to make up for tax revenues lost due to the pandemic along with other allowable uses. The National Association of Counties (NACo) has provided information about allowable uses and this information is available via this link. 

ISACo advocated in support of this additional federal funding for counties with Illinois’ Congressional delegation. Estimates about how much each Illinois county would receive are available via this link. The money will be released in two tranches, with the first 50% of the funding getting to counties within 60 days of enactment and the remaining 50% no earlier than 12 months following the first tranche. Once again, the amounts provided are estimates and may change.

ISACo will continue to provide updates to counties as information becomes available. We will dedicate a page on our website for resources that provide guidance about how the funds can be expended as we learn more. Much of this guidance is anticipated to come from the U.S. Treasury Department.