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Testimony in Opposition to Representative Merrin’s Amendment
to the Budget Bill that Would Increase Lead Poisoning in
Children The Ohio Senate
Finance – Health and Medicaid Subcommittee
May 24, 2017 | Columbus, Ohio
Chairman Hackett, Vice Chair Tavares and Members of the
Committee:
Background & Statement of Interest
My name is Larry Sykes and
I am a member of Toledo City Council. I personally worked
very hard to pass Toledo’s lead law, because I’ve seen the
horrible things lead does to our kids and our society.
I have a unique
perspective because of my various positions in the
community. In addition to City Council, I currently serve
on the Lucas County Children Services Board and I am a
former board member of the St. Vincent Mercy Medical Center
Board, the Lucas County Metropolitan Housing Authority and
Toledo Public Schools.
Lead is ruining our
children’s lives and robbing them of their futures. Child
lead exposure lowers IQs, causes developmental problems and
is linked to violent crime. You all struggle with finding
money to pay for education, public safety and public
health. Well, having less children being exposed to lead
will lessen the need in all three of those areas. And we
know that the approach that Toledo has adopted works. The
City of Rochester had over an 80% decrease in child lead
poisonings when they adopted a preventative approach.
I want you to know that
Toledo City Council very carefully crafted this law. We
have been working on this issue for four years. There have
been many council committee meetings where we took testimony
from landlords, families, medical professionals and
activists. All voices were given the opportunity to be
heard. We consulted heavily with the City of Rochester to
learn from their process and adopted a policy that we feel
will best work in our community.
But when Representative
Merrin wrote his budget amendment, he didn’t talk to any of
Toledo’s elected officials who have been living lead for the
past four years. I cannot tell you how frustrating it is to
have a legislator who clearly has no personal experience
with lead-poisoned children trying to stop us from saving
them.
Toledo’s major medical
institutions are all in agreement that our approach should
be followed. The Merrin amendment should be struck from the
budget bill and I am very grateful for the
leadership from Senator
Brown and Senator Lehner who have drafted amendments to do
just that.
We don’t live in a
third-world country, but you might not realize that if you
looked at some of the housing conditions in some of Toledo’s
neighborhoods. If a landlord is renting a property, he
should have to make sure that it’s safe for children. This
is not too much to ask. We require our water to be
lead-safe, why shouldn’t we require that our housing stock
be safe too?
Lead paint was banned in
1978, yet here we are today still talking about the
problem. It’s past time to do something about it.
I am here to plead with
you today to let us work to save our children. Toledo’s
attempt to stop lead poisoning will help other policy makers
figure out what works and what does not. Our children’s
futures are at stake.
Thank You |
