INDIANAPOLIS — A panel of Indiana senators is set to begin considering whether to provide additional state resources to assist East Chicago residents and institutions impacted by the city's lead crisis.
On Thursday, the Senate Appropriations Committee will debate and take public testimony — but not immediately vote — on two plans allocating a total of $15 million in state funds for East Chicago.
Senate Bill 148, sponsored by state Sen. Lonnie Randolph, D-East Chicago, would require the state pay off debt linked to the shuttering of Carrie Gosch Elementary School.
Officials closed the building in August after the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency confirmed the school's property, and land in the nearby West Calumet housing complex, is severely contaminated by lead and arsenic from past manufacturing operations at that site.
The measure, which is co-sponsored by state Sens. Ed Charbonneau, R-Valparaiso; Rick Niemeyer, R-Lowell; and Eddie Melton, D-Merrillville, also would maintain per student funding for the school district that otherwise would be lost due to children enrolling in other schools.
"The East Chicago School Corp. is going to be in dire need of having the necessary funds to sustain itself because it lost the kids by closing the school," Randolph said.
The other proposal, Senate Bill 317, sponsored by state Sen. Frank Mrvan, D-Hammond, would appropriate $5 million to the state's disaster relief fund as a backstop, in case federal and local lead remediation efforts fail to fix the neighborhood.
"I felt there wasn't anything being done to guarantee any money if there's any setbacks for the people that have to move or if there's more money needed," said Mrvan, who previously had family living near West Calumet and whose district used to include the area.
"If the Superfund money runs out, or if they need money for anything else, they could count on this money."
Standalone spending proposals at the Indiana General Assembly typically get merged into the biennial state budget, House Bill 1001, prior to the April 29 adjournment of the Republican-controlled Legislature.
State Sen. Luke Kenley, R-Noblesville, chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said he expects that will happen again this year if any extra East Chicago spending is approved by lawmakers.
But, in the meantime, he wants members of his committee, many of whom hail from parts of the state distant from East Chicago, to be brought up to speed on the city's lead issues.
"I just think it'd be good for the committee members to kind of hear the story and see what the situation is," Kenley said.
"I had some visits from the East Chicago school superintendent over the summer and she's kind of kept me informed as to what the problems are and what's happened to them. She's working really hard to manage those things, as I know they all are up there."
Additional proposals to support East Chicago are pending in both the Senate and House, though none have yet been scheduled for a committee hearing.
The 2018-19 state budget proposed by Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb includes $1.5 million in dedicated matching funds, if needed to unlock federal grants for lead cleanup programs in East Chicago.
It also provides modest general increases to the state agencies for housing, public health, environmental management and others that already have been assisting East Chicago residents affected by the lead crisis.