Work to get lead out of Garden State homes has surged in recent years, fueled by an influx of federal pandemic relief money and urgency from Newark’s drinking water crisis.
But it’s been years since Newark largely dealt with its water problems, with the subsequent calm taking attention away from lead issues. Now the federal aid is running out, even as experts say lead paint remains the main source of toxic lead exposure in New Jersey. Advocates warn New Jersey’s lead remediation programs face a fiscal cliff that will undo the progress made.
“If we do not act, this incredible lead-safe infrastructure and workforce will be gone and will be left with a thread-bear, incomplete group of lead-safe agencies struggling once again to mitigate the one dozen kids that are still being poisoned in state each and every day,” Ben Haygood, an advocate for the Trenton-based nonprofit Isles, told state lawmakers at a Senate Budget Committee hearing in Newark Monday.
The federal government gave New Jersey $180 million for lead remediation work – particularly lead paint remediation – through the pandemic-era American Rescue Plan Act. That money has been used in the years since to expand efforts on the ground, with the number of organizations and agencies licensed to handle lead remediation efforts around the Garden State growing from 13 before the pandemic to 55 today.
That’s greatly expanded New Jersey’s capacity for lead paint remediation. Up to 1,400 homes are being cleaned up annually, up from about 200 each year before the federal funding infusion.
Advocates are asking state lawmakers and Gov. Mikie Sherrill to appropriate $14 million in the state’s next budget to keep the work going when the federal money runs out. They say future budgets will need to fund the program at $20 million. The governor’s current budget proposal appears to be targeting far less than advocates say is needed — and potentially even less than the state spent on remediation yearly before the federal cash infusion.
Haygood said remediating every Garden State home with lead paint can be done in the next 20 to 40 years if the funding comes through.
“ We can make every home lead safe in my lifetime. Before I die, every home can be made lead safe in New Jersey. Every home,” Haygood told Gothamist after the hearing.
“But that will nowhere near happen, we'll be talking like 80 to 90 years if we go back to $10 million a year,” he added, warning of backsliding to pre-pandemic funding levels.
Dust and chips from lead paint are persistent problems in any building built before the government banned its use in 1978, unless the building has since been remediated.
“This is the primary source hazard,” Haygood said. “Lead paint is where 70 to 80% of the poison comes from.”
Lead exposure can cause brain damage. It’s particularly threatening to children, as even low levels of lead in blood can cause growth and developmental problems. There are no safe levels of lead in blood, according to the Centers for Disease Control.
Lead remediation efforts were thrust into the spotlight in 2019, when Newark’s drinking water crisis spurred then-Gov. Phil Murphy to roll out an action plan for addressing all sorts of lead exposure problems.
But the Garden State has grappled with lead for much longer than that. New Jersey’s Lead Hazard Control Assistance Act, enacted in 2003, created a fund to pay for lead remediation work, and dedicated 50 cents in sales tax on every can of paint sold in the Garden State to that fund. Haygood says that’s an estimated $20 million in revenue every year that is supposed to be used for dealing with lead paint.
“ This shouldn't be an appropriation,” Haygood said. “This shouldn't be something that we're having to fight for every year.”
How much revenue is actually coming from paint sales has always been unclear, because the state doesn’t track paint sales.
Before the federal cash infusion, New Jersey allocated about $10 million annually for lead remediation work. Haygood says the program was woefully underfunded then, only able to support 13 licensed agencies statewide — and that was before COVID-era inflation set in.
“Those 13 agencies weren't really effectively covering the state,” Haygood said. “They had long, long lists, and they had backlogs and they had certain geographical areas we weren't able to touch.”
The Lead Hazard Control Assistance Fund has regularly been raided, with its dedicated money being diverted to the state’s general fund to plug other holes in the budget. It’s the same sort of story that has played out repeatedly with the Affordable Housing Trust Fund and the Clean Energy Fund.
“All dedicated funds in the budget can always be diverted,” said Peter Chen, a senior policy analyst for New Jersey Policy Perspective. “Unless it's constitutional, there's nothing preventing any dedicated fund which comes from a revenue source from being diverted to something else.”
Sherrill’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
Her budget proposal does not have a direct appropriation for the Lead Hazard Control Assistance Fund, according to Darryl Isherwood, a spokesperson for the state treasury. There is language stating the fund will be appropriated “an amount not to exceed” $8 million, but notes that appropriation is “subject to the approval of the Director of the Division of Budget and Accounting.”
“The Department of Community Affairs continues to have access to the revenue collected within the Lead Hazard Control Assistance Fund for the purpose of providing grants or loans to eligible homeowners to make their homes lead-safe,” Isherwood said.
Sherrill’s proposed budget does include a few lead-related line items: $2 million for the Single Family Home Lead Hazard Remediation Fund, $2.5 million for the Lead-Safe Home Renovation Pilot Program and $1.95 million for a program to address lead paint in rental properties.
But those appropriations alone don’t come close to matching what the federal funds have provided, or even the roughly $10 million that had been appropriated by the state in previous years.
New Jersey’s next budget needs to be passed by lawmakers and signed by Sherrill before the end of June to avoid a state government shutdown.
“New Jersey has been a national leader in lead remediation, protecting our most vulnerable residents from the dangers of lead exposure,” state Senate Majority Leader Ruiz, a Newark Democrat, told Gothamist. “This work should remain a funding priority as we go through the budget process.”
Garden State leaders have warned there will be difficult decisions made as New Jersey faces a multi-billion-dollar budget deficit.
“ Funding for programs like lead remediation are exactly the kinds of investments the state should be making, should be prioritizing and at a time of making difficult choices about what to spend in the budget,” Chen said. “They’re directly benefiting kids and families. They're creating jobs. And they're improving housing quality.”
