August 8,
2008
Lead-paint bill may pass
Senate today
Joseph Spector
Albany Bureau
ALBANY — A long-debated bill between Rochester lawmakers on reducing the number of children poisoned by lead paint in New York is expected to be approved today when the Senate returns to the Capitol.
Sen. Joseph Robach, R-Greece, said he made minor changes in his bill in
order to line up with a bill passed in June by the state Assembly.
"After a lot of dialogue, I thought it was more important to get a result,"
Robach said.
Robach and Assemblyman David Gantt, D-Rochester, have jawed over the minor language differences in the bills, and the measure languished when lawmakers ended session in Albany in late June.
For instance, the Assembly version refers to "handicapped individuals,"
while the Senate bill had called them "individuals with disabilities."
Maybe most substantial was that the Senate bill would have enacted the
regulations immediately, while the Assembly bill had a January start date.
Robach's changes would now start the program in January, too.
Robach said he wanted to take another shot at getting the legislation passed because the Senate returns to Albany today to approve a school-property-tax cap. Robach said he has received assurances from Senate leaders that the lead-paint measure will come to the floor.
Told of the pending approval, Gantt said: "Don't you think it's about
time?"
Gantt has been pushing the lead-paint proposal for years, but needed to
exclude New York City for the city-led, Democratic-controlled Assembly to
back it. The Senate took it up this year.
While the use of lead paint was outlawed in 1978, exposure to it has
persisted particularly in upstate New York's aging housing stock.
Almost 3,000 children younger than 6 years old who lived outside New York
City were identified as having significantly elevated levels of lead in
2005, according to the state Health Department. In fact, New York has the
largest number of housing units that still contain lead paint in the
country.
The new measure would require the state Health Department to identify the 30 cities outside New York City with the worst poisoning problems from lead paint and then work with counties to develop plans to reduce the incidence. Landlords would be offered tax credits to cover 50 percent of the cost of removing or covering lead paint.
If approved, Gov. David Paterson would need to sign the bill for it to
become law.
Children who get too much lead in their systems — mostly through breathing
air that includes dust from the paint — risk brain damage and other
developmental problems.
In Rochester, the City Council adopted code amendments in December 2005 to add lead-based paint hazards to city inspectors' checklist for older rental housing. The effort has helped reduce the number of homes with lead paint.