LANSING — Over the next couple weeks, the city of Lansing’s $307 million budget will undergo its final revisions.
The budget proposal, for the fiscal year that begins July 1, includes $182 million in the general fund, up from the current $173 million general fund budget.
The eight-member City Council has been hearing budget presentations from department heads since late March. Councilmembers can still propose budget amendments to increase, decrease or add items in advance of an expected May 18 vote.
Mayor Andy Schor’s office submitted its budget earlier this year and he highlighted to council the addition of three new firefighters, two new staffers in the city’s 311 center and three new detention officers, which will allow five Lansing Police Department officers to move from the city’s lockup to patrol work. Information technology costs were one item that increased in most budgets, which department heads attributed to rising IT costs in general.
Here’s a look at proposed budgets for the city’s public service, police and fire departments:
$41 million for road work in the city
The public works department has one of the broadest sets of responsibilities in the city, including snowplowing, road repairs, sidewalks, sewers, garbage collection and property maintenance. Its $145 million proposed budget is down about $7 million, or 4.2%, from the current budget, according to the proposal.
Public Service Director Andy Kilpatrick told council on April 20 that the main changes in the proposal came from inflation, switching seasonal positions to full-time to make it easier to recruit and retain people and training opportunities for “hard to fill positions” that might also require a commercial driver’s license.
The budget also includes about $41.4 million for road work, including about $17.3 million for local streets. That includes $100,000 for permanent speed bumps, which City Council had previously requested. Scott Bean, a spokesperson for the city, said exact locations have not been determined, but that installation could happen this summer.
Road work in Lansing has become a welcomed and dreaded sign of summer.
“Our success, which is never going to happen, would not be getting complaints,” Kilpatrick told council in April. “Because that means we’re anticipating everything, no issues, no potholes. But we know with aging infrastructure and funding the way it is, we’re always going to get those concerns.”
The concerns and complaints, he added, can be helpful because while public works staff is routinely on city roads and in neighborhoods, they can’t see all the issues.
Police prioritize adding new officers
The proposed budget for the Lansing Police Department is $63.7 million, a 3% increase from the current budget.
Police Chief Rob Backus told council on April 6 that the budget priority was hiring.
“We have vacancies,” he said. “We have deficiencies in our staffing. Hiring has been our priority; it will continue to be our priority. And I’m also very encouraged by the progress we made last year, but also the commitment from the other departments in the city of Lansing, from the mayor (on) down, to ensure that we are getting prioritized treatment so that we can get bodies in the door.”
Backus added that he’ll also look at ways to switch some staff positions to those that don’t require a sworn police officer, which would free more officers for patrol and other police work.
Last year, the police department hired 25 people, including 18 who went through the police academy and seven cadets, Backus said, adding that five cadets are expected to enter the police academy during the upcoming fiscal year.
Like all department heads, Backus was asked by council to highlight department successes from the past year. When he spoke to council on April 6, he pointed to the year-to-date decrease in shootings. However, on April 23, six people, including a 5-year-old, were shot near the intersection of Chestnut and Hillsdale streets in downtown. All six were expected to survive, but during a news conference the day after Backus addressed how quickly crime statistics can change.
“So as of last night, that’s been erased,” he said of what had been a 50% reduction in nonfatal shootings. “And really, this speaks to how fragile our progress is with gun violence.”
Backus said partnering with community violence intervention organizations like Advance Peace, the Mickey 23 Foundation and the Lansing Empowerment Network make a difference. The budget submitted by Schor’s office continues funding for these efforts.
Fire Department seeing increased medical calls
Each year, the Lansing Fire Department responds to tens of thousands of calls about structure fires, medical emergencies or other incidents. Its $48.8 million proposed budget for the upcoming fiscal year is about 7.7% higher than the current budget, but includes three new firefighters.
Lansing Fire Chief Carrie Edwards-Clemons, who took over the job in January, told City Council on March 30, that the new Fire Station 2 at 2114 N. Grand River Ave., part of $175 million city upgrades voters approved in 2022, has already decreased response times in the area.
“And those new stations, they support a safer and cleaner environment for our Fire Department, our firefighters,” she said, adding that the department also bought equipment that was fee of PFAS, also known as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances or “forever chemicals.” The goal, Edwards-Clemons told council, was “reducing cancer risk and occupational exposure to toxins during firefighter operations.”
Increases in the budget proposal for the 2026-27 fiscal year, in part, came from inflation and an increase in call volume, Edwards-Clemons said, particularly with medical calls.
“We see a steady climb simply because, a lot of times, instead of going to the hospital, a lot of people will wait,” she said. “And they’ll wait until that emergency because they don’t want to go to the hospital. They probably don’t have a primary care physician. So they call us and we go and we take them to the hospital.”
There have been more than 6,400 medical calls so far this year, according to department data online, and at least 164 for a fire.
Contact reporter Matt Mencarini at mjmencarini@lsj.com.
This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: Lansing proposed budget has $41M for road work, more police hiring
Reporting by Matt Mencarini, Lansing State Journal / Lansing State Journal
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