County updated on state public health legislation

County Health Officer Dr Rex Allman was present at a regular commissioners meeting on April 17 to update the board about Senate Bill 4, which is Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb's public health bill. In a brief summary, Senate Bill 4 establishes the health powers review force. It defines "core public health services" for purposes of public health laws and specifies the percentage of how additional funding may be expended on those core services. The bill states that the state department may provide services to local health departments and requires each local board of health to establish a local public health services fund to receive state funding. At the time of the meeting and as of the writing of this article, Senate Bill 4 has not been formally signed into law yet, but has been passed by both the Senate and the House. Allman stated that local government will be able to choose to either opt-in or opt-out and continue to keep public health funding the way it is.