LANSING, Mich — Lansing city council is about 2 weeks away from voting on Mayor Andy Schor's proposed $307 million budget for fiscal year 2026-27, and residents are encouraging their neighbors to get involved in the conversation.
Loretta Stanaway, a Lansing resident for about 40 years, said she makes it a point each year to push her community to pay attention to the budget process.
"It's your property taxes, its your services that are impacted by this."
"Any time there's an election in millages, any time services are cut - that all comes out of the budget and that impacts you."
Schor said community input played a major role in shaping the proposed budget.
"You know, I talked to a lot of people."
"It's nice to get it done, its nice to show here are our spending priorities for the next fiscal year."
Infrastructure is among the top priorities in the proposed budget. The plan calls for investing more than $20 million into roads and about $1.5 million into sidewalks.
"We have 600 miles of sidewalks and we need to put more money into them."
Public safety is another focus. Schor hopes to invest money into gun prevention groups like the Lansing Empowerment Night and spend $480,000 to hire 3 new firefighters.
"Putting in another 3, would increase our numbers on the firefighter team like they were 20 30 years ago before the great depression."
Other highlights in the proposed budget include $800,000 for new mod pods and $40 million for a new city hall.
City council is expected to vote on the budget May 18. In the meantime, Stanaway is encouraging neighbors to send their suggestions to council.
"Our neighborhood isn't super tight knit but I do most of my neighbors and we forsure have conversations."
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