Lead Poisoning Fund in New Jersey Gets a Hearing

February 18, 2015- A New Jersey state Senate panel plans to discuss a bill that would pump $10 million into the nearly empty Lead Hazard Control Assistance Fund on March 9. The fund is supposed to provide loans and grants to remove lead paint — a special hazard to children — from homes and rental units.

"With thousands of children in the state continuing to be poisoned each year, we must take action," Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg, D-Bergen, said in a statement.

The Press investigation found that the state diverted more than $50 million from the Lead Hazard Control Assistance Fund since 2004 to pay state salaries and bills. The Press also found that state officials failed to carry out a 2008 law that is supposed to ensure lead-safe conditions in one- and two-family rentals.

Lead poisoning, which can lead to learning, behavioral and other problems, can be prevented. But health professionals find high levels of lead in more than 5,000 New Jersey children each year. Most of them are poor minority children in older urban areas.

The fund is supposed to get at least $7 million and up to $14 million in earmarked paint and coating sales tax revenues each year, under a 2004 state law signed by former Gov. James E. McGreevey. But the fund has received the minimum in just one year — fiscal 2006.

Read the full app.com post here.

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