East Lansing city officials slammed Gov. John Engler’s revenue sharing and fire-appropriation vetoes that cut 16 percent of the city’s general-fund budget and fire protection funding - totaling $4.6 million.
“We have a ‘rainy-day’ fund, but this action by the governor is a monsoon,” City Manager Ted Staton said at a Monday afternoon meeting of the state’s emergency fund that can make up for 10-15 percent of the difference, but only for one year.
“There is simply no way we can conduct business as usual with these kinds of cuts.”
Engler spokesman Matt Resch said the governor took the action to persuade voters to reject three appropriation proposals on the Nov. 5 ballot. In the vetoes’ wake, the city council has started looking for ways to remedy the shortfall - including tax raises and funding cuts for certain departments and programs.
If the fire station and its 20 firefighters were dropped, the city would save $880,000, but response times could double and Louis Brown, ASMSU student assembly vice-chairperson for external affairs, said that’s unacceptable.
He said he experienced a medical emergency during his sophomore year that the MSU fire station responded to.
“My chest felt like it was going to burst,” Brown said of a bout with severe dehydration. “I can’t imagine what would’ve happened if the response time was doubled.”
The council also discussed closing the public library to save the city $1.3 million.
But the library could possibly stay open if nonresidents paid more than the current $20 membership fee, Councilmember Bev Baten said. Neighboring communities charge upwards of $100 for nonresident membership, she said.
“Why are we so low?” Baten said. “We’re charging $20, and that seems criminal to me that we’re charging East Lansing residents so much for letting people from other communities use our library.”
Turning off all street lights, eliminating the local probation-monitoring department, cutting off all funding to community events and festivals and eliminating the Senior Center, located in the Hannah Community Center, 819 Abbott Road, also are on the table.
The center had been moved to Hannah to provide more room for senior citizens utilizing the facility.
The other options include raising property taxes or instituting an income tax in the city. City officials said this budget crisis might be the beginning of a string of woes and tax increases to help the city with long-range budget problems.
Closing down buildings is only a temporary solution, Staton said. A last resort may be to chop up to 90 city jobs.
Still, things might not be too bleak for the city.
State legislators will meet Tuesday and are expected to overturn the governor’s veto, state Rep. Paul DeWeese, R-Williamston, said. But the Legislature may only overturn the revenue-sharing veto and not the other decision by Engler that cut funding for fire protection.
DeWeese urged residents to go to a rally on the Capitol lawn at 9:30 a.m. Tuesday.
“Clearly, the Legislature feels this is blackmail - it’s scorched-earth politics,” DeWeese said. “We think the more people are (at the rally), the more it will stiffen the spines of the state Legislature.”
