* Press release…

State Senators Karina Villa and Laura Fine held a Senate Behavioral and Mental Health Subject Matter Hearing Thursday to discuss the psychiatric needs of detained youth across Illinois.

“There are hundreds of children across Illinois waiting to receive the care they need and deserve,” said Villa (D-West Chicago). “We must prioritize the needs of these children and ensure they have access to the appropriate care.”

The hearing was held at the request of Villa’s Mental Health Advisory Committee, a group made up of mental health professionals in DuPage, Kane and Kendall counties who work together to advocate for mental health resources and care in the community.

The hearing focused on the drastic shortage of residential placements for youth across Illinois in need of psychiatric services. With more than 250 children across Illinois awaiting placement, these children are left at home or in hospitals with no access to adequate facilities with the proper care necessary to serve them. Children who have been through the justice system also experience additional barriers to receiving specialized care.

Family Service Association of Greater Elgin, Kane County Juvenile Justice Center, Peoria Juvenile Detention Center, and Children’s Home Association of Illinois spoke at the hearing to present their thoughts. They work with youth who have experienced significant trauma and present acute psychiatric needs, and have been directly impacted by the lack of inpatient psychiatric placement for youth who need additional services.

“Today’s hearing shined a light on where we need to focus our efforts to improve the delivery of mental healthcare for youth in crisis across Illinois,” said Fine (D-Glenview). “Our committees are working diligently to ensure our children and loved ones have access to vital mental health resources and treatments for successful outcomes.”

* Press release…

A vast network of Community Health Workers trained by the Illinois Public Health Association and Illinois Primary Health Care Association to address health equity gaps during the COVID-19 pandemic will continue offering resources in the Prairie State thanks to new support from the U.S. Center for Disease Control Prevention and the Illinois Department of Public Health.

Leaders from Illinois’ response to the COVID-19 pandemic, including Dr. Tracey Smith of IPHA and Ollie Idowu of the IPHCA, joined Gov. JB Pritzker’s administration today to announce the COVID Health Equity Pandemic Health Navigator Project - $10 million program allowing Community Health Workers to continue connecting vulnerable constituents with basic human needs and health resources. Dr. Smith said Community Health Workers were a crucial component to Illinois’ COVID-19 mitigation efforts whose usefulness goes far beyond the pandemic.

“Community Health Workers are a trusted source for communities dealing with long-standing health equity issues in Illinois,” said Dr. Tracey Smith, who serves as director of community health at the Illinois Public Health Association. “Many of the Community Health Workers we hired during the COVID-19 pandemic have already found positions utilizing the skillsets our training provides. We are grateful to IDPH for enabling us to continue this work and further strengthening Illinois’ public health infrastructure.”

* OK, this is tied to the election, but not a strictly political press release…

Beginning tomorrow, the Illinois Family Relief Plan will go into effect, making good on the promise by Governor Pritzker and the General Assembly to provide relief on the grocery tax, gas tax, and property taxes. The plan totals an estimated $1.83 billion in relief, including income and property tax rebates and a temporary cut in several sales taxes. […]

The Family Relief Plan includes several tax holidays, meaning a temporary cut in taxes, including:

• Groceries: The state’s 1% sales tax on groceries will be suspended July 1 through June 30, 2023, saving consumers $400 million.
• Gas: The state’s normally scheduled increase in the motor fuel tax will be delayed from July 1 to January 2023, saving consumers $70 million.
• School supplies: Sales taxes for qualified clothing and school-related items will be reduced from 6.25% to 1.25% for a 10-day window from August 5 to 14, saving consumers $50 million. Items include qualifying clothing and footwear with a retail selling price of less than $125 per item. Eligible school supplies are not subject to the $125 threshold.

In addition, the plan permanently expands the state’s earned income credit from 18% to 20% of the federal credit, while expanding the number of households covered, putting an additional $100 million per year back into the pockets of working families who need it the most.

The State of Illinois is also providing property tax rebates for eligible homeowners in an amount equal to the property tax credit they qualified for on their 2021 Illinois tax returns, up to a maximum of $300. The rebate is not allowed if a taxpayer’s adjusted gross income for the taxable year exceeds $500,000 for returns with a federal filing status of married filing jointly, or $250,000 for all other returns.

Additionally, individuals who made less than $200,000 in 2021 will receive $50 income tax rebates. Couples filing jointly with incomes under $400,000 will receive $100. Tax filers will also receive $100 per dependent they claimed on their 2021 taxes, up to three dependents.

Income and property tax rebates will be automatically issued to all of the estimated 6.2 million taxpayers who qualify under the Family Relief Plan based on information included in their submitted 2021 tax returns. Comptroller Susanna Mendoza will issue the rebates and expects to begin to cut checks the week of September 12. Distribution will take roughly eight weeks after the rollout begins.

Taxpayers who did not file their 2021 IL-1040 individual income tax returns but want to claim the individual income tax rebate, both the property tax and individual income tax rebates, or solely claim the property tax rebate, can do so. The Department of Revenue will provide an online submission form via the website listed below.

Rebates will be sent automatically using the same method original refunds were transmitted if they were sent directly to the taxpayer by the State of Illinois. If direct deposit was used, the individual rebate will be deposited directly into a taxpayer’s account. If there was no refund or a paper refund was issued, the rebate will be mailed to the address on file. Taxpayers who did not receive a refund directly from the State of Illinois, such as those who received an advance of their refund from their tax preparer, will receive a paper rebate check mailed to the address on file.