By Rob South, WKAR News
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wkar/local-wkar-961238.mp3
LANSING, MI –
While the governor and state legislature try to hammer out a balanced budget, local municipalities are also feeling the pinch. Governor Rick Snyder's budget proposal has sharply reduced the money the state shares with local governments. And what is being doled out will depend on how well the locals meet certain criteria, including their willingness to work together to provide services to residents.
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It is one of the most basic services any local government can provide: Public Safety. And on any given municipal balance sheet, police and fire protection are almost always at the top of the expenses column. More than half of the city of Lansing's budget is spent on cops and firefighters. But in the upcoming fiscal year, the city needs to slash $20 million to balance the books. As a result, Mayor Virg Bernero says more than 100 public safety employees could lose their jobs.
Bernero says, "These cuts have the potential to change really the service, the quality of service in Lansing and potentially the quality of life."
Bernero says he's concerned about how those cuts would affect the city's ability to respond to emergency calls. So, popular programs like Community Policing could be eliminated before basic road patrols. Brian Whitsitt is the community police officer for the Baker-Donora neighborhood. He says he knows big changes are coming to his job.
"Well, my spot differs from the regular patrol, says Whitsitt. "As a community policing officer, I'm assigned to a certain geographical area and I interact with the people in my community more frequently based on the fact that I have a little bit more time to do that. The road officers, on the other hand are going from call to call, from report to report."
Michigan Governor Rick Snyder says communities should work more closely together to provide services that are getting harder and harder to afford on their own. He's sharply cut back the amount of money the state will share with local governments and says communities that start planning for consolidation would get more state funds. Bill Rustem is with the Governor's office.
"To just look at how you can share services, come up with a plan for that," says Rustem. "How might you merge a police agency? How might you merge a parks agency? How might you merge fire agencies to create more efficiencies and a better product for the delivery of services?"
Lansing Mayor Virg Bernero says he's tried a number of times to share more costs and services with neighboring communities, but those efforts have largely been unsuccessful. Bernero says the locals just need more motivation.
"I'm ready to make it happen," he says. "I've been trying to make it happen, but as you know, I haven't been very successful. We have the consolidated 911 center, that's wonderful. But I think you could have a county-wide fire department. I think it would be more efficient. I think it would save money and lives. I can't force that, though. A Governor, the legislature, they have more tools to really make that happen, facilitate that happening."
Bill Rustem agrees that changes need to be made to the laws which govern how municipalities can merge services. He says the governor's plan would loosen state rules and make the process easier.
"Enable local governments to talk to their neighbors about merging services," Rustem says. "Enable them to do so without the threat of it being an unfair labor practice, without the requirement that they keep everybody at the same position, the same wage, the same benefits. Let's remove those impediments and allow those discussions to occur. And, let's create a special pot to reward those places that really want to do a significant merger."
City of Lansing voters will go to the polls next month to consider a 4 mill increase in the property tax rate. But even if it's approved, the city would still be facing a $12 million deficit.
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