Lepore-Hagan helps sponsor bill to fix Ohio's water infrastructure

COLUMBUS — State Reps. Michele Lepore-Hagan of Youngstown, D-58th, and Kent Smith, a Euclid Democrat, today announced legislation to fund sewer and water capital improvements through general obligation bonds.

Under this proposal, municipal corporations, counties, townships and other government entities would be eligible to receive state bonds for capital projects to ensure clean drinking water, promote public health and alleviate environmental concerns.

“Communities across Ohio, including many in the Mahoning Valley, constantly struggle to obtain the funding needed to maintain and rebuild critically important infrastructure,” Lepore-Hagan said in a news release. “Our failure to upgrade and modernize the systems that deliver our water and treat waste put people’s lives at risk. The longer we wait, the more likely it becomes that a Flint, Mich.-like disaster will occur in our state. I am confident Ohio voters will embrace our common-sense solution to this growing and extremely dangerous dilemma.”