And now the.

490 with Gretchen de Bakker might kill them.

And Kevin Mullin.

Com.

Welcome to the 419 powered by GTE and presented by Retro Wealth Management.

I'm Kevin mullin.

Gretchen de Becker.

I kill him.

I'm going to start saying my name like that every day.

Like great.

Like that.

Oh, I like it.

Yeah, yeah.

Do it again.

One more time.

No, I'm not going to do it now.

Okay, well, wait.

Tune in tomorrow.

Did you notice a difference in how she says.

Her name was subtle?

I haven't listened to the thing that's come out of that chair in quite some time.

Obvious.

Yeah.

Oh my goodness.

We've got a it's Tuesday.

Yeah.

Jeff and Jeff, for our TV folks, we we can't figure out this.

From my.

Grandma's grave.

Just give me that.

Oh.

That's fine.

I was going to say coffee table.

But what?

One of the same.

I took a darker.

The.

What's the difference between.

And I feel like you'll know the answer to this question.

By the way, for our listening audience, I'm wearing, like a crocheted shirt that they're both making fun of me.

For.

I didn't say that.

I said.

I thought it was lovely.

Okay.

That's exactly.

Yeah.

Doily.

Okay.

Yeah.

Yeah.

The great aunt used to have those like you.

Like you'd have a a little doily that they would make, and then there'd be, like, milk glass, you know, that white and pink, you know, sit on it.

And then they'd have little things in it, like caramels or Red hat.

Took that to someone and said, turn this into a blouse.

I want it in a size large shirt now.

Yes, that's what happened.

Yeah.

Neyland in your bank said, please leave.

At least Red hat.

My.

Yeah.

My great aunt, Minnie and Gurley, they lived together.

They had a bowl of red hots.

They had this little when we weren't allowed to touch it.

Like one of the moms had to like, because they considered the milk glass, like, very, very valuable.

But the kids weren't allowed to open.

It play with it.

My grandparents had a candy bowl as well at hand.

Chuckles in it.

Do you know Chuckles.

Are those those little chewy.

Yes.

They had the audacity of carving them into orange licking.

Oh God.

They were that was the best thing.

Yeah.

But they had other old people.

Yeah.

Candy in it like Werther's and oh, why are there some other things that have not been made since, you know, the Coolidge administration.

My great aunt, her milk glass candy jar.

I don't know what.

Milk glasses.

It's that it's white.

It's glass, obviously it's white.

It's not see through it.

It's got all these, like.

Glass is both white and glass.

Yes.

This is what informative.

And it's like, I feel like the red yarn is.

Yeah.

It's good.

Yeah.

That's right.

So her candy by the door in the milk glass candy jar was spice drops.

Spice like gumdrops.

Yes.

Terrible.

Oh, that sounds terrible.

So I like licorice ones.

Oh.

Yeah, I if I had not had them as a kid.

And it's like it's one of those that one of those memories that like, the taste of it might be terrible.

But I have such fond memories of like going to her house.

And a kid.

Is going to get candy.

They're going to, they're going to eat it.

Yeah.

Matt.

Leave alone.

Leave it alone.

All right.

We've got speaking.

Of kids.

Yeah.

You know what this is?

Segway.

That was a good Segway.

Yeah.

if you had acknowledged it.

Yeah.

But.

Raffling off a Segway.

But.

We're going.

To win Penny.

Meeker on the show.

Yes.

Parenting expert.

She's from B love parenting, a company that she founded.

And so I think that we'll get some tips for both of you.

Obviously I know everything as a non parent.

So but she's an expert parenting coach.

And so.

Also for those of you that do not know her, she is incredibly nice.

She is very.

Nice.

So that is a leg up on my parenting already.

She's married to one of our favorite people, Bob Meeker.

Yes, as well.

So anyway, it's a win win for us.

And then, and then we're going to dive into a, hot topic, in the region, as it relates to data free.

No, we've done that.

Okay.

Oh, hot topic, the store.

Okay.

Right.

We're gonna talk about the store.

There's some line up is out.

It's all.

Is that.

T shirts?

You get that type from Hot Topic?

No.

We're gonna talk about topic.

So we've got, Theresa Federer, Alison Fiscus joining us on the program, and we'll, we'll talk and learn a little bit more about property taxes.

Specifically where and how they support, education, local schools.

Theresa.

Alison, are on the side of, of, you.

Know, we'll find out.

I think that's what people are talking about.

I think it's a good way to to tee it up.

Yeah.

What are people talking about?

What are they thinking?

And we've got two representatives of the community to talk about, what their opinion is.

It's a real top of mind right now.

So.

So let's, let's, let's take a break when we come back, Matt and I are going to become in in the next segment, we will become better parents, let's hope.

Is that a fair.

It can only go in one direction.

Your kids have asked for this guest to come on.

Yeah, I assure you, Ruby has not I. I believe this is a direct phone call from my children.

All right, let's take a break.

When we come back, we'll talk to Penny Baker here on the 419.

Support for the 419 comes from we True wealth management, where we understand that your financial path is pers advisory services are offered through Capital Investment Advisory Services, LLC.

Securities offer through Capital Investment Group member Finra and SIPC.

More information at Retro advisors.com.

The 419, powered by CTE is made possible in part by supporters like you.

Thank you.

Welcome back into the 419.

It's no mystery, Matt.

And I talk quite often about the challenges we have as parents and, the number of ways that we are actively screwing up our children.

And so we have exactly 60 minutes to solve all of that.

And there's no doubt that our next guest.

No, that's no pressure.

Penny Meeker, welcome to the program.

Thank you for being here.

About how adoption works.

For you.

For you?

Yes.

Yeah.

I mean, you.

So Gretchen introduced you as a parenting expert here.

Is that a title that you want?

Yes, absolutely.

Okay.

So talk to me.

About what?

What that means.

My background is actually in youth development.

I have been in every school district in Lucas County and every school in Toledo Public Schools in my work doing programing in classrooms, after school programing, in school programing.

I brought programs that are national to Toledo.

So I'm a train trainer.

I have all this specialized knowledge about what is really effective when it comes to raising kids and teenagers, and I wanted to bring that to parent.

So I started we left parenting three years ago.

I have just finished writing my book, so I am looking to publish.

That is.

Exciting.

So there's lots of exciting things happening.

What what is the the book about parenting?

I mean.

Okay, yeah, small engine repair.

That's fair.

What I so as you're, as you're talking to a parent and you're trying to give them kind of the first steps toward, identifying what style of parent they are or how to be a better parent.

What are some of the core tenets of that?

Yeah.

So the core tenets are experiencing more every day.

Joy, calm connection and raising resilient kids.

Those are the three main focus.

And under everyday joy, I'm looking at things like where it is at, you're paying.

What are you paying attention to?

It's super easy as a parent to focus on all the things that are going wrong, all the ways that your child isn't behaving well or struggles that you're having with your child, and just taking that time every day to notice those little cute, you know, when they when they put those two words together in some funny way, or as a teenager, you know, I had two boys where they, you know, just put their arm around you and say, I love you, mom.

Or at the end of a really hard day, maybe it's looking at them while they're sleeping and remembering how cute.

And holding that pillow.

Let me ask.

You a question.

And this is potentially unfair, apologize, but, one of the things that an I have an opinion about this, is parenting more difficult now, people are constantly talking about, in my opinion, from the beginning of time, that the apocalypse is upon us.

And now is somehow more difficult than it was, or things are so different.

May I ask your opinion on on that concept?

Yes.

So the the working title for my book, in answer to your question earlier, is Parenting without the overwhelm in 2020 for the Surgeon General made parental burnout a public, they declared it a public health issue.

41% of parents say that they're so overwhelmed some days that they cannot operation, which is twice as many as as adults without kids.

So I do think it is harder.

Okay.

Yes.

So for a number of reasons, one.

You know, things have changed with social media.

Parents have a barrage of information coming at them.

It can be very difficult to sort through, and a lot of times it's coming in these little bite sized pieces.

And you're parenting a whole human.

It's messy, it's hard.

And it can be difficult to sort out what is evidence based, what's not, what's going to be effective for your unique child may not be the same.

So, Kevin, your child may need something a little bit different than you sure do.

You need.

What?

There's so.

Much.

Yeah.

That's great.

Yeah.

They, they need something.

There's so much online, and a lot of people may actually kind of make fun of it.

There's videos and things about this concept of gentle parenting.

And, talking to your, you know, a kids having a complete blowout in a, in a restaurant or something, and their parents are he just needs to get through his feelings kind of thing.

Is that hate those parents hate those.

Is that something?

What do you think about that?

What what what does it really about?

Gentle parenting comes from counselors.

And they have a very valid you know, science backed approach.

And it isn't the whole picture.

They that what they do all day is they see kids who have, you know, been hurt, have trauma, and they're listening to their feelings.

So that is what they're experts in general.

Parenting really comes from that perspective.

And it leaves out sometimes the structure that kids need as well.

Right.

If you go into a classroom, they're not spending the whole day.

Yeah.

Just talking about their kids fear.

Right?

Right, right.

There is a there's a plan, there's visual aid.

The kids know what to expect.

They know exactly what to put their backpack, how to sit down, what they're going to do first.

So part of finding more joy is having those routines.

Because if your morning is chaos, you're not going to be fine and you're not going to be enjoying parenting a whole lot.

So I again, I think you've you've answered this, and this is certainly going to out how not sophisticated I am.

Not that that's a mystery, but I do.

I guess I'd like to at least touch on the conceptually, these two things are at odds.

The resiliency that that is in the title of your book and also nurturing, hand-holding, coddling.

And that's not I don't mean that in a negative way either.

But how are these two things?

I know this is probably wildly complex question I'm asking.

But it is the first time ever actually a complex question.

So I think we should both be nervous.

Okay.

What's the.

What's the duality of these two things?

I think it's interesting.

And I don't know if I'm on one camp or the other, but are we raising people to be more resilient?

Are we raising people to be more self-aware, or understand that they're entitled to their feelings?

And how they feel?

Are is this a phase that we're learning how to do both of these things better?

What what what where are we going and how how are we getting better, in your opinion, with these two things needing both to be true simultaneously.

It's difficult for, I think, people who don't work in youth development or education or constantly with kids to fully understand this, you need the limits and the structure.

And the nurturing kids don't feel safe with adults who can't handle their behaviors and their feelings.

I'll give you an example.

I was I took a group of young people to Virginia to do service projects.

And I had a few parent chaperons and I had a teacher chaperon.

Her name is Betty Jo.

She doesn't mind me using her name.

And we had one young man who just always was.

He just was that kid who was always doing that little thing to push the boundaries.

And she was on him.

He couldn't look at something, you know, without her, without her calling him out.

And the other parents were a little uncomfortable with it.

I really while we were there, unfortunately, we got some news that his grandfather had died.

So we are eight hours from home.

His family's very close and Betty Jo walked up to him and just held him, and he stayed there with her.

And then he walked away with her and sat down and poured out his heart.

Oh, and the parents were a little bit in shock because they thought, well, he wouldn't like her because she had been so strict with her.

But the opposite is true.

When you as a parent, provide that executive functioning that we have, that kids don't have, and we provide that, that those boundaries and those limits very clearly, then kids can get actually more comfortable.

They feel more safe within that frame.

And like in the book, I conceptualize it as a frame.

Yeah.

Within that frame of limits, you have all the warmth and the love and the nurture.

But kids need it.

Know where those if they're, if not they're, they're constantly testing or they feel insecure.

Interesting.

I think it's I describe education as a gradual increase in distance from the safety net.

Right.

So you got kids are on a tight rope.

And so when they're when they're in preschool and kindergarten they are swaddled in that safety net.

They could not possibly injure themselves as they get into junior high and high school.

Now we're talking about being able to break a bone.

But you're not going to permanently disfigure anything.

And you get to college and out of college and there is no safety net.

You fall.

And so what we're trying to do is teach kids that resilience and comfort to sort of stand on their own.

I think parents who probably follows a similar trajectory of, you know, the rules we have where when they're very little to keep them safe versus the rules we have when they're when they're older.

I'm curious, your thoughts on, you know, that concept of I'm watching my child do something that's going to hurt themselves?

Whether that be physically, emotionally, certainly not permanently.

Ever let them fall?

Yeah.

What do I do?

I let them fall.

Do I do I protect them?

What's the right approach?

Yeah, that's one of the concepts that I developed in my book is something that I call baby steps.

Yes, yes, 100% step by step in, walk alongside.

Step back.

If you look at whatever you're seeing your kid do and you're you, it's a little bit it's about being intentional when you need to step in.

Well when they're toddlers it's your job to keep them safe.

You're stepping in all the time with teenagers like you said.

You want them to make some mistakes.

You want them to face some consequences for their behavior.

And and it may be important to step in if they if they need you to advocate for them or, you know, they're really going through something and it's just not in their capability to handle it on their own.

And then walking alongside is when your child faces something that you don't have any control over, maybe their friend moves away or you know, they lose a grandparent, as I said earlier, or even.

Just to lose their grandparents.

At the moment.

Or they're.

Experiencing, you know, some sort of rejection at school.

It can be a lot of things where you just coming alongside of them and you're supporting them and then all those gentle parenting things that we're learning that that's when that comes into play.

And then there's stepping back.

Your kid needs to try and fail.

They need to do hard things.

They need to get a little bit hurt so that they know that they can overcome, that they can develop that confidence.

A lot of our, you know, audience may be driving in a car right now with their kids in the back seat, right.

And, I kid.

Or someone.

How do you or someone's kids, how do you know as a parent, if you're listening to this conversation that it's you're feeling too badly, that you're too stressed, that there's too much going on, that things are out of control?

What is what is a sign that a parent would have?

I mean, obviously it's a daily grind for all ages, right?

I mean, how do you know the difference between just the sheer torture of raising kids and like, I need I need a penny maker in my life.

I how do you what do you how do you assess your kids?

It's hard or this is hard because.

Right.

Because something's going wrong or because I can't seem to get it going.

I have had parents who we just have one session and they just want to check.

They just want to make sure that they're not missing anything, that things are going okay.

Usually when parents come to me they, they know you know they know they're in, they're caught in a cycle that it's not it's not working.

It's not healthy.

They're negotiating with their toddler all day.

And, you know, the toddler is winning, right?

Right.

Is there any age.

That it that it is too late?

It's never it's a great question.

It's never too late.

I working with a parent of a 19 year old and you know, they're they're trying to figure out how to have that more adult healthy relationship.

But they have all these old patterns that they have to unwind.

We're talking with Penny Meeker with belove parenting.

The book is complete.

It's going to be published.

And one more time.

What's the title of the book?

Parenting without the overwhelm.

Parenting without the overwhelm.

That sounds so joyous.

So.

Where can people find more information on belove parenting?

You can find me on Facebook and Instagram.

I do the videos and the reels.

There'll be updates on books website, and I have a newsletter as well to keep folks up to date on the book.

If you can.

Do one message to parents right now, what's the message that you would give to them?

Shift your focus to find that joy.

To find what to remember, what it is you enjoy about your child that can that can make a huge difference.

And one more time for the adoption hotline.

Penny.

Thank you.

So, yeah.

Thank you for being here.

Thank we come back, we're going to talk with our friend Candace Buckley, with the Toledo Lead Resource Center, and talk about some of the things.

Talk about keeping families safe.

She's doing some incredible work in the community.

100%.

We'll continue that conversation here on the other side of the break on the 418.

To me, community means connecting to others.

I'm Dani Miller, and welcome to the point.

I mean, yes, yes, we are a community committed to education.

Discover new ideas, dive into exciting subjects, and engage with the world around you.

I would send them personally a t shirt crime doesn't pay in the Old West End Pasadena.

That's how we.

Cleaned up the neighborhood.

Vision loss for people is not the end.

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It's the next chapter.

The big E public media invites you to get out and play day.

Monday through Friday.

It's the 419 powered by W GTD with Matt Killam, Gretchen De Backer, I'm Kevin Mullen.

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Where you come to watch, listen and learn.

Welcome back into the 419 powered by GTI.

We're joined now by our friend Candice Buckley with Toledo Lead Resource Center.

Candice, thank you so much for joining us.

So what is the Toledo Lead Resource Center?

The Toledo LED Resource Center is, the region lead organization for lead poisoning prevention.

So we focus on education and outreach, advocacy and awareness.

We have a workforce development component.

I think the one thing that we do really well is collaborating with other partners in the community 100%.

I am such a huge fan of yours.

And you and I, you and I met, through, I think, the homeless.

I'm holding out.

I'm holding attachment.

Yeah.

That's fun.

Yes we are.

Is that.

Hold that judgment on you.

That's right.

So.

But we met through the homelessness board, and you've got such passion for, you know, supporting families.

We just wrapped up a conversation with Andy Meeker about, you know, parenting and being a good parent.

What was it that brought you to the lead resource center?

So, you know, I was just asked this question two weeks ago, and I had to, like, sit with myself and reflect.

I hate doing that.

I know, but it takes you.

It takes you to that moment of, okay, how did I get here?

And looking back over my career, and even dating a little before I was even able to work when I was a little girl.

I always knew that I wanted to, do something around poverty.

Something that helped children.

And so looking back from my time with Ian Grady, services for us and a lot of time they're working with children and adults with intellectual disabilities.

So that commonality of housing and, vulnerable, folks in need of great services.

Then transitioning over, to the homelessness for that commonality of, people that are, in need of housing and vulnerable populations.

And then that took me to this current role.

And I see that, like common theme in reflection, where I am, advocating daily for families living in our community, and the little babies.

I just met a mom, like, two days ago.

And her two babies.

Recently they had diagnosis of lead poisoning, and she was not English speaking, but I was at an event with a translator and able to, work through the resources.

But that has been the consistent theme.

And and, you know, I didn't show up in any of these scenarios for easy work.

Yeah, I showed up because I felt like at a very young age, this is what I was meant to do on this earth.

Which means that, yes, I'm going to have days that are full and that feel heavy, especially when you are meeting the end user of services and understanding their journey.

But I'm always refreshed and renewed every day when I get up and come back at it, because I know I'm making a difference in my.

So, I'm, I live in the old West End and I've got little girls.

So I, I am familiar with this, but we we never have enough time on the show.

But I do want to get an elementary education.

About the pervasive problem of lead poisoning.

Can you talk about this from a 30,000ft and drop down at teachers?

So in our community, always when I talk about our community, I always like to compare us in our housing stock to Clevelan I did a round table.

Would, Sherrod Brown.

And every time he talks about Cleveland, he talks about Toledo when it comes to housing stock.

And so I had to do my research, actually went out there and spent some time, with a colleague that does similar work out there.

And so, looking at Toledo, we any any given day.

Toledo, Lucas County, we have 3400 kiddos in our community, that have been poisoned by lid.

And those are the ones that have been tested.

And so we have more to identify that have not been tested.

Another fun fact, 80% of our housing, built before 1978.

I'm living in one of those.

My home was built in 1950.

Can you explain why that 1978 years is a is the critical time frame?

Absolutely.

So, 1978 was the year that, lead paint was banned?

In in housing.

And so but by the end, I mean, you look around our community, we have this beautiful, like community of of housing.

But it has lead in it.

And that's not to say that, you can't live safe in a home that has lead in it.

But there are some general practices that has to be put in place in order to do so.

And part of that, lies on the shoulders of the resource center and making sure the right education, because there's a lot of myths around that poisoning.

The right education is getting into the right hands, and that parents have confidence and feel empowered to do the things that they need to do in their home settings and let Bill let art to lead labs save lives.

Lead paint was used.

It was pervasive.

It was use interior exterior.

It was window sills.

It was all of those kind of areas that it was used in homes.

What is the current status of the lead law in, the city of Toledo or Lucas County?

So our local ordinance is currently we it's broken out in phases.

We just got through, one of our phases.

I just heard a recent update, from compliance out of the Department of Neighborhoods and Community Development that there are about 200 non compliant, landlords, property owners, whoever would fall in that category of single to for unit housing.

That have not complied.

And so now that 200.

Yeah right around 200.

Now that's that's definitely a huge number.

But there's over 5000 that showed up and did the right thing.

Right.

And so I don't want to gleam the light on those folks that have complied.

But now we're in that phase of enforcement.

I, I am so honored to do this work and to be situationally positioned, next to the work of the city of Toledo, because, it helps me keep a thumbprint, on how hard we have to continue to push to raise awareness and.

To that to that end, the segment around just before you was about parenting, to educate the audience about what lead poisoning does to our children.

So let poison itself, can be very detrimental there.

Our cases in the United States where, one in particular, where a child actually, passed away.

Because the light levels were so extreme.

But on a more subtle, scale, cognitive delays, breathing issues.

You know, sometimes, and I'm gonna use this is a very common one because I think all parents like, oh, you go to the doctor.

The kid has some breathing issues.

Wheezing.

Oh, okay.

Baby girl has asthma.

So then the child gets treated for asthma, but then, then they're in the home and it's dust.

You know, the dust is triggering the asthma.

We got to dust the house.

Well, led dust is one of the most common causes of poisoning.

And so, you know, I always challenge families to, push back a little bit.

And, part of pushing back is like, hey, there is a lead issue in my community.

I'm living in a home that was built before 1978.

We've done really well with maintaining it, but I think my kid needs to be tested for lead poisoning.

Talk to me.

About what?

What those next steps look like.

Right.

So you get to that spot.

You are concerned.

Even.

Yeah.

Like I mean, it's important for parents to advocate for their kids, but to know where and how to do that.

What's the what's the right next step for a parent?

So here locally, I can tell you if there is a child in the home under the age of six.

Our local health department is our mandated, led screening body for the community.

Right.

So they will screen at any point, they'll screen the child.

And then that sort of triggers additional services depending on where that child's level levels are.

But as an unfortunate thing, which we're really getting better at is amongst primary care and kids care is raising awareness within those groups.

Because there are still, you know, I always say there's these myths around lead, and some of which, and you see it more with the, young gen of, primary impedes coming into the workforce where we're in front of them, like, hey, this is still this is still a thing.

You know, the doctors that, you know, that, are more seasoned and had many years of experience.

This isn't a new conversation for them.

And so I continue, I continue to try to educate as many people and parents as I can.

And every sector and system where there is an intersection.

You also have to remember just briefly that it's any it's any place where your kid may be.

So your house could be fine.

But if you take your kid to grandma's house every day and she watches, the kid child during the day, that house is also potentially problematic and could be causing issues and needs to be tested.

Correct.

And I'm so glad you brought that up.

Gretchen, can you.

Pretend I said it?

Okay, we'll pretend.

We can edit that out.

Because.

Welcome.

That brings me to another thought.

Often times you can have done very well.

Let's say that you're the family that is highly educated on lead poisoning has done very well maintaining your interior, of your home.

Paint's intact floors.

What floors?

And all the things.

But let's say that there is an industrial issue close by you.

And the issue is the lead does blowing into your yard from this close by.

Industrial place.

And so now that beautiful play area you built for, your babies, they're out there just, you know, having the best, right?

Ever.

And it only takes three small grain.

So you think a pack of sugar, right?

Three small grains from that pack of sugar to poison a child.

I'm going to put you on the spot here.

And if it is unfair, we can edit it out.

Okay.

But if we were talking about poisoning children in any circumstance, I would think there would be an all system stop to fix this.

Talk to me about why we are not providing more resources in.

This.

Isn't being considered an epidemic that we're we're.

Well, these are our children.

These are the people who are going to be taking care of us.

Right.

In the future.

You know the old adage, of course.

So why don't we care enough to make this wholeheartedly stop?

I think, based off of the rooms and the systems and the leadership that I've spoken with people.

Absolutely care.

I think the, the, the greater challenge is always going to come back to resources, right?

In the finances.

Sometimes who it's affecting aren't loud enough or don't have enough people supporting the change that.

Absolutely.

If you look at like, our historical red line mapping and you look at the neighborhoods that are disproportionately impacted and you lay those on top of each other.

You definitely see some commonalities between the two.

If someone is listening today, we're talking to Candace Buckley from Toledo Lead Resource Center.

If someone is listening to the show today and their home was built before 1978 and they're concerned, what what would you tell them to do today?

What should they what action should they take.

If they have a child in the home aged six and under?

I would tell them to contact the health department immediately.

If that is not the case, I would, tell them to visit, our website, WW Toledo.

Let's save that time.

And to look for, someone that can come into the home, and be able to test the home and be able to confirm whether or not they have a leg issue in the home.

And I just want to be very clear, like, the biggest challenge is also within our our rental, okay, 50% of our community is rental, right?

And so, oftentimes I get calls from tenants, my landlord didn't do this and my child has left or my, this happened, you know, trying to work through and triage all the things.

I would always, advise a tenant if you're ever on the fence, if there's an issue, you can always reach out to our local fair housing issue.

And always reach out to us because we do warm handoffs.

We are also a part of our local lead poisoning prevention coalition, which is comprised of a wide array of partners that do work in this space.

So the cool part about our organization and I always tell people upfront like, hey, we're not clinical.

We don't do anything clinical.

But I have about five partners that I can refer you to.

If you don't have a child that's six years or under.

Is the home safe?

No.

Absolutely not.

What can be done if if your home has lead in it, what can we do about it?

I feel like the first step is, is testing it.

I can tell you that there is a resource coming on in our community.

Where there are some funds that have been set aside to do some remediation work.

When housing in the community, it is very limited and there is an eligibility criteria for it.

But I would encourage folks to stay on the lookout for that.

That work is not, cheap.

But is absolutely necessary when it comes to the impact that it has on families.

We've got about 30s left.

Which is not enough time for this question, but I'm going to throw it out any.

What if a parent to sit at home, I mean, obviously, you know, they're not going to look at their walls and say there's lead based paint in those walls.

But I mean, we know the age of the home isn't is a factor, but what's something that they might see in their child that is an early indicator.

Like I should get tested.

I am so glad you asked that question, because the short answer is there may be no symptoms at all.

So you got to go.

You just got to go.

Just assume it's got to be.

Yeah.

Awesome.

Thank you.

So much.

Thank you so much.

We appreciate you being here.

When we come back, we'll talk with Alison Fiscus and Theresa Federer about property taxes in Ohio.

We'll be right back on the 419.

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Welcome back into the 419 powered by GTD.

There is a growing conversation around northwest Ohio and around the state of Ohio about property taxes.

Whether you're for them, whether you're against them, what the impact will be, if we remove property taxes from the state of Ohio, we're joined now by two guests with particular expertise in the area of education, Theresa Feder.

Allison Fiscus, thank you so much for being here.

Thank you for having us.

What, what's going on?

I guess let's start with, you know, what.

Is.

Maybe let's start with how do property taxes fund education.

And services?

Yeah, educators.

Go ahead.

Property taxes are one of the largest funders of all of the things that I would say contribute to the quality of life that we have in this area and across the state.

For schools, they're a significant portion, for things like libraries, parks.

That's why you see those levies on the ballot.

Those are the things that really contribute to our ability to live fully, happily and to get a good education.

But beyond that, they also play a huge part in all of the things that you absolutely need but don't necessarily think about.

They're your emergency services.

They are the fire truck getting there fast enough for you, your EMS, so many different things.

They help our farmers.

They have so many of the different essential services that contribute to our ability to live fully and happily.

And what's the concept that's currently being discussed statewide to change that?

And if you can, why?

What is the the individuals that want to do that?

Why do they want to do that?

Well, we have a ballot initiative that was put together to remove property taxes for the state of Ohio.

Yet there's no replacement.

There's no concept of how we're going to replace the $21 billion.

That's collected locally in funding our schools.

Like Allison has said, also, the farmers are greatly affected.

They have a calculation for their current value of their land and that will be totally wiped away, even though that's in the Constitution.

So really upsets the apple cart altogether for townships.

They don't have the ability to raise any taxes through income and sales tax.

So it's all property tax.

That means if you live in a township and most of Ohio's rural right, they may be eliminated or filed for bankruptcy.

Attached themselves to another city.

But the bottom line is, you know, someone has to pay for those services for snow plowing.

E-m-s fire police.

So those kinds of things are totally wiped out as far as how we serve our citizens who pay taxes.

And I think the most important thing that we need to think about is our property taxes too high.

I would say yes, we need tax reform, property tax reform.

But this isn't the way you solve the problem.

You were in the state Senate and in in the state House.

Is this ever been, at this level of a conversation when you previously served?

Is this always been sort of circling around the state House and now someone's brought it to this level, or is this seem like a completely novel new thing?

I love that question.

Yeah.

Gretchen, can.

You pretend like I asked it?

Oh, yes.

Yes, yes.

Thank you for that question.

I'm sure you talked about it.

Yes, we did.

No, as a matter of fact, we know we have to have shared services, which means we have shared tax collections.

And so this type of extreme solution has never been brought up.

In fact, governor DeWine put out in the Ohio Budget Management Committee a document saying that this is devastating to schools.

It's devastating to our credit rating, our bond rating.

This is going to have a huge impact.

And schools definitely would collapse.

Yes, because most of their schools are funded through property taxes.

And there's a reason why we're in this situation today, which we can talk about.

Please, please expound upon that.

Oh, yeah.

All right.

Thank you.

In 1997, Ohio, declared to the Supreme Court that Ohio's school funding system was unconstitutional overrelianc property tax.

Here we are, right.

It's never been fixed.

Except during, Ted Strickland's four years.

But the rest of it has been unconstitutional for over 30 years.

Four times.

But why is it not being fixed, then?

I mean, if we know for all this time.

Because four times the Supreme Court said it's still unconstitutional, they released their authority to.

Oversee.

The legislature, making sure they had a constitutional funding system that doesn't have an overreliance on property taxes.

And what did they do?

They didn't find a solution for everybody.

Funding solution like the fair school funding plan we now have.

They've rejected that, abandoned it, and they've opened up a quasi private, charter school system.

We have vouchers going to private schools, and there's no proof that those systems work.

We have the money to fund our schools constitutionally, that there's no will to do it.

So I find myself, if embattled on this issue.

Right.

Because I agree with the core talking points of both sides of this argument.

Right.

The idea that property tax is a tax on potential income, right.

Potential gain.

It's I bought a house for, you know, I bought a house for $100,000.

It's now worth $300,000.

And I'm taxed on it as a $300,000 house.

I can see how that is a frustrating proposition.

I also totally agree that we need core services.

There are the majority of Ohioans that don't have another way to get this.

I'm an education person.

I believe strongly in, the need for public education.

I'm also a fan of of Ed Joyce.

Right.

A fan of the state investing and in outcomes and success and putting dollars in the hands of parents and taxpayers to say you make the best decision for your kids.

But like, where do I what now?

So I'm going to lean back on my favorite terrible statistic, if you will, to kind of talk through specifically the education portion of that.

Because the the truth is.

The numbers show us that 90% of Ohio's children go to public schools, yet only 70% of the funding that the state provides to schools go to public schools.

And so that's not about not providing an opportunity for, you know, a parent to choose.

That's that's not about that.

That is just that's just bad policy.

That is that is favoring one side over the other, even when the numbers are not there to show that overwhelmingly parents are actually picking public education.

And I am I'm a product of both.

I went to a private grade school.

I went to a public high school.

I can see the value in both of these institutions, but I also can recognize that it's very frustrating.

I'm I'm like you, I bought I, we bought our house in 2020 and all of a sudden the value appreciated so much that our tax burden was, was much higher than what we had expected it to be.

We we also recognized that there needs to be some level of property tax reform where we are also those people feeling it.

But for for those of us working.

Within the sectors, that would be, you know, devastated by eliminating property tax, our biggest concern is making sure that the people who would be potentially voting on this truly understand how deep that impact is, because to say it is devastating, it is catastrophic is unfortunately, an understatement.

I did I and we never have enough time, but I do want to bring this to a real life granular example, and I'll just pick random places.

But I want to play it out like this passes and the and the timeline and what it means.

So I live in Richfield Township.

Let's just say, I just picked a township at random.

It's a property.

Taxes is eliminated.

Talk to me about what happens next.

Well, if you have six months to figure out a solution.

Six months?

That's right.

And the individuals who are.

Proposing that we eliminate property taxes have provided us no answers for how that would play out.

And some of the proposed answers the governor put together, group to investigate what this might look like.

And the answers are terrifying.

He, was quoted as saying, we're looking at to replace property taxes to even begin to replace that, a sales tax that's between 15 to 18% conservatively.

For comparison's sake, the highest sales tax in the US right now is in, I believe, Louisiana.

And it's 10%.

So remind me, give me the laundry list of services that plans aside.

So six months, there's going to be change for sure.

That's a that's a short window.

And what things that I'm accustomed to are immediately impacted by that one way or the other.

Give me the laundry list.

Just so everyone knows, schools.

Police, EMS, fire, some hospital services, libraries, parks, all of the things that we do to help our farmers.

We're talking about the main the only way I believe.

Teresa.

Correct me if I'm wrong, that townships can can levy money to exist.

I think the.

Word that we're missing, I mean, it just seems so just stupid to even say.

But it's replacing the property tax.

The focus is on replace your this this tax.

A tax is not going away.

Someone is paying for these things.

The residents of the state of Ohio, one way or another, has to pay for the services that we all rely on.

And so is the argument that, on one side or the other, I mean, is the argument that what we're paying right now for these services is too high and that, you know, that we're overinvested in education, that we're over investing in police and fire and parks and, libraries.

I mean, is that part of the, the, the other are doing.

It's the culture of where we are right now with taxes.

And we are in this levy treadmill.

It also has something to do with governor K-6 not returning the local government funds back to the local government.

And it would it was a 40 year promise.

It was cut in half.

We are still not where we were historically and funding so therefore school districts are on the levy treadmill all the time because we're not constitutionally funded.

We didn't get our local government taxes back.

So you've got the libraries, you get the metro parks, you get the O. We forget seniors, seniors, others.

You know, folks that you see all the time ago, while there's so many levies I didn't even know.

And you go to the ballons.

Whoa.

What is this?

Well, it was created by designed to put all of our tax burden at the local level, and we decide, okay, that's not a real choice, because when you look at the common good for the common good, we are having less and less services, costing more and more money.

Why is that?

Because there's no fairness from the state capital.

If the state can't control this situation.

And they also control the type of taxes that the entity can collect from the ways that we can.

You have you have tobacco money, you have marijuana money, you have all of these things that are being set up in many ways, in my opinion, to punish cities or eliminate right cities ability to race.

Because, you know, we collected the local property taxes, but the legislature makes the la how we're going to do everything with them right now.

How local is that is that, you know, these are mandates coming from the state which tie your hands, that you cannot have certain laws, you can't collect certain things.

I mean, there is no fairness at the state House, I can tell you that right now.

So so you've said that, you know, in the 90s, our educational funding system was broken.

Yeah, yeah.

I mean, clearly broken.

Still broken.

There's a need for tax reform, for property tax reform, for just general tax reform.

What efforts are being done at the state and maybe even local level to to do those things?

Well, I know the municipalities work extremely hard to have their voice heard.

The township trustees, they they work very hard at the state House.

So they're practically all on the same page.

But the legislators and the leadership will listen.

And that's the problem.

They are not listening in.

So when we talk about tax reform, this is a long term solution.

You have to have everybody at the table, which is so critically important, which is what John Patterson did for the for the school funding plan, which he's going to be there and talk about that.

But the same approach that used for human trafficking, everybody was at the table.

You know, the victims informed us on what laws we needed.

That's what needs to happen.

That model is called good governance.

Yes.

It's actually called good governance with transparency, accountability checks.

And I remember that that was great when we used to do that.

When you're talking about being there, you're referring to an event that's coming up.

And I do want to ask you, I have gotten the great opportunity to know you during my day job as a Metroparks, employee.

And thank you for your report, Alice.

In full candor, you and I are friends.

We both work for culture institutions.

I think both of you, I can say without a without a without a doubt, what you want to do is get people information and do let them choose.

Talk to me about the opportunities and what is coming up so people can learn more.

Okay.

A very, small group of school board members and myself just talking about, oh, God, what are we going to do?

This is catastrophe.

And they're.

Like, yeah, well.

Some of them never talk to each other in, in a collaborative way because we work in silos.

So for the first time, we've got this group and we have do something.

I said, well, we need to educate and advocate, just like we did human trafficking, just like John Patterson did with fear school funding, where everybody was at the table.

We need to start doing that because of this happens.

Boy, we're just going to regret it.

The citizens are going to regret it.

It'll be bad for Ohio and so we want to put together this effort of property, the future of property taxes, understanding the impact in northwest Ohio, public services.

So we have experts, Zach Schiller from Policy Matters, Ohio.

Excellent researcher.

Absolutely.

He's been doing incredible research on this.

So he'll be there.

John Patterson talking about the fair school funding.

But the solution and he and I talk a lot.

We need to put together a group so that all voices at the table and win.

And then, where is good.

So on April 29th, this coming Wednesday from 630 to 8:30 p.m.

at Penta in the auditorium, we will be gathering together a whole host of panelists that, as Teresa said, really represent all of the different sectors that would be affected by this.

And so we're leaning upon them.

For their expertise.

And then there will also be a lot of folks in the audience that can speak to the specific, you know, municipalities, townships, etc.

that we have and how that will affect them locally.

Alison.

Teresa, thank you so much.

Tomorrow, 630 to 830 at and Career Center in the auditorium.

You can learn some more information about this.

We'll take a break.

When we come back, we'll wrap up this edition of the 419 every day.

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Yeah, the last hour we sell parenting, lead in our community.

And we've also fixed all of the tax issues.

Yeah, I think that we I know we talk about this a lot and and probably be irritating to our listener, but we never have enough time for each segment.

And we do go back and forth whether or not we should be the people talking about these issues.

Mostly we land on.

No.

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Guest.

Yeah, we do hope.

I mean, at least certainly I hope that people take this snippet.

Right.

16 minutes seems like a long time until you really start talking about something like this, but that people take the next step and do the research, go to the websites, come to these events and get involved in these issues that are.

Relevant to the in.

The consistent thing about across our show is, you know, we're bringing people on that are good people that care about the community, that are working hard to make a better version of the community that they see, and they envision mostly good.

You know, who you are.

Yeah.

That's right.

If you missed any part of the show, you can catch all of it online.

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Huge thanks to Kenny Meeker, Candice Buckley, Allison Fiscus, Theresa Federer for joining us, and thank you for joining us as well.

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