A | 今年上半年，地方一般公共预算本级收入6.88万亿元，同比增长2.7%，增幅比一季度提高0.6个百分点；东部、中部、西部、东北地区收入均保持增长；31个省份中，28个省份收入增长……上半年，各地财政运行情况怎么看？近期，全国31个省、自治区、直辖市陆续“晒账本”，公布上半年财政收支情况。
B | 28个省份财政收入增长 总体看，上半年地方财政运行平稳，地方一般公共预算本级收入6.88万亿元，同比增长2.7%。
By Keely Larson | KFF Health News
But even with these two new pools of money intended to last two years, the state’s schools may struggle to remove all but the most dangerous sources of lead, considering about half the schools that tested their water between July 2020 and February 2022 found high lead levels. Medical experts say no amount of lead is safe to ingest.
“When you start replacing faucets and drinking fountains in the hundreds of schools that we have in Montana, that gets eaten up pretty quickly,” said Democratic state Rep. Paul Tuss, who added the state funding to an infrastructure bill passed this spring.
If the total were divided evenly among the approximately 590 schools that need to meet the state’s new lead testing rules, each school would receive less than $8,000 from the state to test and upgrade its faucets, pipes and water fountains. The state already knows that 110 schools have had at least one water fixture with lead levels of 15 parts per billion or higher, three times the level that requires action under Montana rules.
Most schools with lead levels over the state limit could address their “exceedances” with the state money, according to state Department of Environmental Quality spokesperson Moira Davin. “Our plan is to address as many schools as possible with this funding,” she said.
But part of the challenge for Montana is that it doesn’t yet know how extensive a problem its schools have. More than a fifth of the state’s schools facing the new rules — 129 facilities — hadn’t completed any sampling as of Aug. 3, said Greg Montgomery, the director of the department’s Lead in Schools program. And replacing a single school’s pipes can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.
“We are not talking about solving the whole problem here,” said Levin, who worked on lead exposure during her nearly 40 years at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Lead is particularly harmful to children and can lead to brain and nervous system damage and slowed development and growth. It typically gets into drinking water in schools through piping or fixtures. A 2020 state rule requires schools to test water supplies every three years. If lead concentrations surpass 5 parts per billion, fixtures must be addressed — and shut off if higher than 15 ppb.
Jessica Reyes, an economics professor at Amherst College, said prioritizing fountains or pipes with high lead levels after a “first draw” test could help a lot. The test measures lead in water the first time a faucet is turned on for the day, after the water’s been sitting in a pipe all night. That sample provides the best data to pinpoint the greatest risks, she said.
Running all faucets for a few minutes before kids get to school is quite protective for kids, Reyes added, because the quantity of lead diminishes as the water runs. But Reyes likes to imagine a kindergartner who gets to school early for free breakfast and drinks from a water fountain before anyone in the building clears the pipes.
“Everything kids need to grow — lead is the opposite of those,” Reyes said.
Montana officials will decide how to distribute the money from the legislature, reimbursing schools for costs such as installing new faucets, water filters, plumbing and water bottle filling stations. The federal grant, meanwhile, will be used for covering costs related to testing, Montgomery said.
Schools will have to participate in the state’s Lead in Schools program by sampling their drinking water to get any of the state funding, he said, and they won’t be able to use the money on projects completed before the state bill was signed into law.
Montgomery said the amount available to schools would depend on whether they have any fixtures over the “action level,” or fixtures with lead concentrations over 5 ppb. Funding will be prioritized on a first-come, first-served basis, he said.
Even if a school doesn’t have high samples of lead in its test results, Montgomery said, it could seek money to install water bottle filling stations with filters. Schools could also use the money for larger projects such as replacing piping, but, Montgomery said, the state will set a limit on how much each school can get. And, he said, it’s unlikely the money will be able to cover something like a $100,000 pipe replacement project.
The goal is to make money available to all schools, regardless of size, and ensure a couple of schools aren’t “gobbling” the entire amount, Montgomery said. That means schools with extensive issues will likely need to pick which areas to fix.
“We want to make sure the small schools have equal footing as the large schools,” Montgomery said.
Many Montana schools have already launched remediation projects after receiving high lead results.
One sink at Skyview High School in Billings had one of the highest levels of lead detected in schools across the state. Scott Reiter, the executive director of facilities for Billings Public Schools, said the sink was in a control room in the auditorium and people rarely used it. After the results came in, the fixture was removed to make the sink unusable.
On a larger scale, he said, all cold-water piping for drinking and sinks was replaced at Rimrock Learning Center in Billings last summer. Reiter said the school had been remodeled and all fixtures replaced about five years ago, so when lead was detected all over the school, it was clear it wasn’t just one fixture.
“We knew that it had to be in the lines,” Reiter said.
Reiter said the school district used leftover money from a 2013 elementary school district bond to replace Rimrock’s pipes, which he estimated cost $100,000.
While Reiter said he was disappointed costs from the Rimrock pipe replacements and other projects that have already happened couldn’t be reimbursed retroactively, he welcomed the state’s additional funding. “Any help to the schools for something like this is great,” he said.
The Great Falls Public Schools district also exemplifies how extensive and expensive such work can be. The district used $19,511 from an earlier $40,000 state allocation for drinking fountains, water bottle fillers and filters across schools in the district, said Brian Patrick, its director of business services and operations. He said the district also got 783 tests covered by the state, each costing $25.
His district used a bond passed in 2017 to fund a pipe replacement at Lewis and Clark Elementary School, where 23 tests came in at 5 ppb or higher. The pipes were replaced last summer, Patrick said, costing $411,252.
“It doesn’t get fixed in one fell swoop,” Patrick said.
This article was produced by KFF Health News, a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF. It has been published with permission.
。31个省份中，28个省份收入增长，比一季度收入增长省份多3个。
C | 分地区看，东部、中部、西部、东北地区收入均保持增长。 总量方面，广东、江苏、浙江等经济大省一般公共预算收入规模稳居全国前三。广东省地方一般公共预算收入7421亿元，同比增长2.8%；江苏省、浙江省上半年一般公共预算收入超过5000亿元。 以江苏为例——上半年，江苏省财政收入端稳中有升，税收占比保持高位。全省一般公共预算收入5941亿元，其中税收收入4545亿元，增长3.4%；税收占比达76.5%，收入结构持续向好。看主要税种，增值税收入增长5.8%，企业所得税收入增长2.5%，反映经营主体活力持续增强。个人所得税收入增长17.4%，反映居民收入、劳动就业保持良好态势。
D | 增速方面，西藏、新疆、甘肃3个省区上半年一般公共预算收入增速居全国前列，分别达到36.9%、10%、8.2%。
F | 从投向上看，相关资金主要用于市政和产业园区基础设施、交通基础设施、城市更新和社会事业等重点领域，其中用于项目资本金超1700亿元，更好发挥政府投资“四两拨千斤”撬动作用。从管理上看，财政部门加强了专项债券资金穿透式监管，开展专项债券资金使用情况“扫描式”核查；同时，加强专项债券项目资产管理，建立专项债券项目资产台账，推动形成从资金管理到资产管理、从债务端到资产端的管理闭环。
G | 今年，河北、江西、湖北、重庆被纳入新增地方专项债“自审自发”试点范围。
H | 据了解，上述省市制定了本地区试点工作方案，明确项目筛选、资金使用、资金监管、债务偿还等各环节责任任务，聚焦强化部门协同、项目储备提质增效，发行使用进度明显加快。 财政部债务管理司副司长赵则永表示，财政部将指导督促各地进一步强化专项债券“借用管还”闭环管理：在项目谋划之初，加强部门协同配合和审核把关；更好统筹资金使用和项目建设，加快资金拨付使用进度，尽快形成实物工作量；严格落实“负面清单”管理，规范项目资产管理，提高投后管理科学性和规范性；加快建立偿债备付金制度，编制好还本付息归集计划，做好项目运营收益征缴，切实提高偿债能力。
I | （记者 汪文正）。
Current article:http://uhshg9.shangyaohujunwei.bond/news/20260826_735276.html
