EAST LANSING, Mich. — There was a great community turnout at last night’s follow-up community engagement meeting on the City of East Lansing’s budget priorities.
PSC Final Report on Budget Priority Findings
During the meeting, Public Sector Consultants (PSC) shared the results of the survey that community members filled out at the previous two community engagement meetings and online. A total of 968 people participated in the survey. PSC’s final report can be found here: www.publicsectorconsultants.com/eastlansing.
City Manager’s Presentation on Potential Service Cuts
East Lansing City Manager George Lahanas also provided a presentation, which included a list of recommended service cuts over the next two fiscal years in the event that no new revenue is found. The recommended cuts were requested by the East Lansing City Council and will be considered by Council during regular budget deliberations, which begin this April.
Lahanas’ presentation, including the list of recommended cuts, can be found here: https://www.cityofeastlansing.com/DocumentCenter/View/7061.
“While this list of cuts was extremely difficult to make, our hope is that a new revenue solution will be found that would eliminate the need for these reductions,” said Lahanas. “The community’s feedback helped guide some of these recommendations; however, some of the services that are highly supported by the community had to be added to the list to get us to $3 million in cuts.”
Additional Community Feedback on New Revenue Options – NEW Survey Now Online
PSC also facilitated a voting exercise during the meeting to garner additional feedback on potential new revenue options. That voting exercise is now available via an online survey for community members who were unable to attend the meeting: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/ELBudget. The survey will close at 11:45 p.m. on Sunday, March 4, 2018. The results will be compiled by PSC and presented to East Lansing City Council.
City Council will be considering potential new revenue options during a public hearing at its meeting next Tuesday, Feb. 27 at 7 p.m. in Courtroom 2 of the East Lansing 54B District Court, 101 Linden St. Action by Council to pursue a new revenue option is not expected at this meeting, as many of the Councilmembers have expressed that they plan to have an ongoing discussion about both cuts and new revenue in the coming weeks and months. This will allow more time to receive additional information from City staff and consider the community’s feedback prior to making any decisions.