Lead: School water tests will be costly

Re: “School water screening still sits on shelf across state” (TNT, 5/1).

The story mentions that a line in the state budget (”state health agencies ‘shall not implement any new or amended rules pertaining to primary and secondary school facilities’ without the Legislature’s specific funding”) is what killed testing for lead.

That’s not what killed the proposal. What killed it was the lack of a way to pay for it.

As a taxpayer, I am sick and tired of state bureaucrats spending years developing rules and regulations without spending one iota of time thinking about how much their proposals will cost or how to pay for them. That is what the line does – it helps limit unfunded spending by the state.

I agree testing for lead in schools should be done.The Legislature already has been sued for not making education funding a priority. Testing for drinking water safety needs to be included in the solution to that mess, not made a one-off requirement of its own.

This story was originally published May 3, 2016 at 10:07 AM with the headline "Lead: School water tests will be costly."