East Lansing city officials are seeking $325,000 hiding somewhere in the city’s $50 million budget.
The East Lansing City Council held the first of three scheduled work sessions Tuesday to help determine how it can stop the 2001-2002 budget from dipping into the city’s $2.8 million savings.
“This is the first budget I’ve seen on council where we’ve drawn upon reserves,” Mayor Mark Meadows said. “I want to see options. I realize I may not like what I’m seeing, but I’d like to see us getting a non-use of the reserves.”
The 200-page budget presented to the city council includes provisions that could affect MSU students, like charging non-residents to use the East Lansing Public Library, 950 Abbott Road.
To trim the budget, the city council also is considering raising parking ticket fees from $12 to $17, a $5 increase that would add an estimated additional $200,000 to the city’s budget.
An early payment provision that would leave the fee at $12 for people who paid parking tickets within 12 hours would be included.
“That’s a real source of revenue as far as I’m concerned,” Mayor Pro Tem Beth Schwarze said.
On-campus parking ticket fees also possibly could be raised by $5, bringing the price up to $15 for parking illegally in a metered space or $25 for parking in a reserved space, if a proposal is approved.
Other money-saving options the city council is considering include eliminating public broadcast of council meetings, which would save the city $200,000, removing social service money, which costs the city $280,000 annually or leaving three un-filled police officer positions empty, saving $350,000.
Officials also hope the state will award an additional $200,000 to the city to help cover fire and safety costs incurred by the city for protection of MSU’s campus as well as the city.
The city council is not required to make any decisions about the budget until it is finalized May 15.
City Manager Ted Staton said the city’s budget problems come after a year of expensive health care costs and a Census 2000 count that showed the city had 4,200 fewer people than in 1990.
City officials are likely to appeal the numbers with university documents that show there are more people living in the city.
“We’ve made tough choices in the past and we’ve got tough choices ahead of us,” Staton said. “We’re not in a dire emergency situation. I think we need to remind ourselves of what we’ve accomplished.”
The construction and improvement of several recreational amenities, like the Hannah Community Center, 819 Abbott Road, which is set to open Dec. 1., and the Family Aquatic Center, 6400 Abbott Road, set to open Memorial Day weekend, have all taken a toll on the budget, with $350,000 allotted for their expenses.
“Six years ago, we could either have accepted a community in decline or invest in a big way,” Staton said. “We made an obvious choice. All those things that got this city into trouble in the late ‘80s, early ‘90s, are what could put future generations in East Lansing in jeopardy.”
