Racine Sun

Racine could soon tap into the $250 million in Wisconsin's share of federal grant funds Gov. Tony Evers announced in the town last week, Mayor Cory Mason said in a recent social media post.

The governor stopped at the proposed Julian Thomas Elementary School Health Clinic on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive for a press conference on Tuesday, Aug. 24, when he announced the funding for two programs to address health care disparities.

"I was pleased the governor chose Racine to make an announcement about a total of $250 million of funding being made available to the state to invest in our neighborhoods and in health care infrastructure," Mason said in his Facebook post the same day. "Racine is positioned well to apply for these funds."

The money from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) is for two new competitive grant programs aimed at helping communities throughout Wisconsin rebound and recover from the still ongoing coronavirus pandemic, according to a news release issued by Evers' office. About $200 million will go into the Neighborhood Investment Fund grant program and $50 million will go toward the Healthcare Infrastructure Capital Investment grant program. The funds will be parceled out for "transformational capital projects" for neighborhood pandemic recovery and to "address the equity gap" in Wisconsin for housing projects, transit and childcare, and increasing health care access, the press release said.

Evers played up health care access during his stop in Racine.

"For too many people, access to care, compassionate providers or an accessible clinic remains out of reach," Evers said. "Unfortunately, the COVID-19 pandemic further underscored the health disparities and gaps in health care and access that many Wisconsinites face."

Evers stood at a podium behind a "The Badger Bounceback" sign, a reference to his COVID bounce-back agenda. The bounce-back agenda includes passing "a bold, bipartisan budget" to get the state back on its feet "and better than we were before this pandemic hit.”

"Overall, these $250 million of new funds will help communities and neighborhoods right here in Racine and across our state bounce back from the pandemic," Evers said during the press conference. "We’re going to propel ourselves forward and build the sort of state that we want for ourselves with these resources."

In his own comments during the pandemic, Mason noted that Racine is one of Midwest's largest communities that lacks a federally funded health clinic.

"COVID has laid bare just how big those disparities are and what a difference it can make to have a federally funded health clinic - or not," Mason said.