The East Lansing City Council will continue discussing revisions to the 2001-02 budget at today’s work session.
Council members are working to eliminate a proposed $325,000 dip into the city’s savings to cover recent increases in health care and recreational project costs.
Another work session will be held Tuesday to discuss budget changes before it is finalized on May 15.
During the April 10 work session, council members raised questions about possible ways to add revenue or cut costs.
East Lansing Finance Director Gary Murphy said he hopes to provide more answers for the city council tonight.
“These are just possibilities,” he said. “We don’t know if council is going to go for any or all of them.”
Murphy said one of the ideas that would raise revenues for the city would be raising parking ticket fees for metered spaces from $10 to $15 and other parking violations from $20 to $25.
Violations for parking in an accessible/handicap parking space could go from $55 to as high as $100.
While no cuts or increases are definite, Mayor Mark Meadows said he thinks the ticket fee increase is likely.
“I really haven’t made any decisions personally about where the strongest cuts might come,” he said. “It’s a pretty strong possibility that we’ll look seriously at the parking increases.
“I won’t be satisfied until we’ve found that $325,000.”
Housing inspection and license fees also are expected to rise as a result of the budget troubles.
However, no cost increase will be approved until the expenditures for the Housing and Code Enforcement department for the year have been approved.
License and inspection fee increases of any size could be reflected in the amount of rent people pay.
“It’s not the landlords that are paying this,” Meadows said. “They’re passing on every dime.
“Landlords, whether they’re with more than 1,000 rental units or someone with one little house who’s trying to make a go of it, they have an equal voice with us.”
Howard Asch, the director of housing and code enforcement, said fees for the city’s 1,600 rental licenses have gone up gradually, but it’s not without benefits to renters.
“Every time there’s an increase it would reflect in the rent because the owner needs to recover from the investment,” he said. “It’s sort of like an insurance policy that you get a safe place to live.
“From what I saw years ago before there was a rental inspection program, I know that with the licensing program it provides better quality of rental units and a higher degree of safety.”
