Kane County, Illinois will likely lay off over 70 health care workers on August 15th. This in response to growing frustration over the state’s pending late payments of $1.5 million in grants to the county. The county currently intends to forgo the grants, which require it to perform certain services, effectively ending the programs they fund.

“People ask: why don’t we just see what happens,” Health Department Executive Director Paul Kuehnert commented. “I think we’ve already done that. We know the direction the state of Illinois is going.” Kuehnert went on to say that continuing to provide the services funded by the grants without guarantee of payment would put his department at risk of not being able to perform its core functions.