Lansing City
Share reader comments online www.LansingCity CommunityNews.com Look for In Your Voice at the bottom of the story
Community News
TM
© 2010 Lansing Community Newspapers
Lansing’s premier weekly newspaper
Vol. 7 - No. 3
www.LansingCityCommunityNews.com
October 10, 2010
Schools will get money; remain worried, skeptical By KATHLEEN LAVEY klavey@lsj.com
Mid-Michigan school districts welcome a lastminute boost in state school funding, but officials aren’t quite ready to break out the champagne. “It gives us a little bit of breathing room,” said Tom Goodwin, chief financial officer for Grand Ledge Public Schools. The additional money is about $750,000; the district’s budget for 2010-11 is about $42 million. “Definitely, it’s good,” said Venkat Saripalli, chief financial officer for the Lansing School District. “But it’s a temporary thing, a one-year deal.” The money adds about $3 million to Lansing’s $185 million budget. Earlier this summer, the Legislature granted school districts at least $7,162 in state aid per pupil. On Wednesday, it added another $154 per student. That brings the minimum state grant per student to $7,316 — the same amount districts received in the 2008-09 school year. The Legislature cut $165 per pupil last year. But the money — drawn from federal funds and earmarked for staff salaries and benefits — also comes at the same time as schools
must boost the amount they pay into retirement funds. Richard Pugh, director of finance in East Lansing, said the district expects to receive about $610,000 in additional money. The boost in its retirement costs is about $220,000. East Lansing’s budget is about $33.5 million. East Lansing is one of about 40 so-called 20j districts that faced additional cuts last year. That money — more than $300 per student — was not restored. Waverly Community Schools also is in that situation. Pugh said school districts have the option of holding some or all of the money until next year, when the state budget is expected to be even tighter and federal money might not be available to help balance it. “That’s one possibility,” he said. Goodwin said it still would be best to reform the way Michigan pays for education. That includes changing where revenue is drawn from as well as aligning the state fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1, with the school districts’ fiscal year, which begins July 1. “If you’re trying to build a longterm instructional program, you’ve got to have a more reliable funding stream,” he said.
Matthew Dae Smith/For the Lansing State Journal
This city of Lansing fleet services building on North Cedar Street in Lansing now serves about 300 vehicles. The city wants to consolidate the services, and turn a recycling station resembling a barn into a garage.
City seeks new home to service fleet of vehicles Council expresses interest in pursuing bonds for project By SUSAN VELA
| svela@lsj.com
City vehicles with dead batteries in Lansing’s shuttered Oak Park garage are a conundrum for the city’s mechanics. Stationed at the South Street garage, the mechanics must get behind the wheel in the winter and travel to the Shiawassee Street location before they can diagnose the problem. That could all change. Lansing wants to issue $3.2 million in federal stimulus bonds to retrofit an inactive recycling building into a consolidated garage. “If we don’t have it, we need additional staffing to maintain current levels of services,” said Greg Klco, the city’s
What’s next Lansing residents have 45 days to comment on the city’s interest in issuing $3.2 million in bonds to finance the retrofitting of a former recycling station into a new consolidated garage for city equipment and vehicles.
fleet manager, who noted the inefficiencies and duplicate services that occur with two city garages and other storage locations such as the Old Park facility. A recycling station resembling a barn would be converted into a garage managing a fleet of approximately 1,150 pieces of equipment, including 650 vehicles and other rolling stock. The city’s recycling campus is located along South Street. See Bonds/page 3
How to reach us: Advertising: 517-377-1141 Circulation: 866-226-1812 News: 517-543-9913 Classifieds: 877-475-SELL or 877-391-SELL