Lansing’s mayor has appointed a committee to take a hard look at the capital city’s financial health.
The committee is made up of some of Lansing’s top business and civic leaders.
Declining property taxes and state revenue sharing dollars combined with rising costs are squeezing Lansing’s finances.
Lansing Mayor Virg Bernero says the committee will come up with short-term and long-term proposals for dealing with the city’s financial problems.
Former mayor David Hollister will chair the committee.
He says it’s all about maintaining a good “quality of life” in Lansing.
“We simply can not guarantee that…if we keep doing things the ways we’ve always done them,” says Hollister.
He says it will take the next six months to look at how Lansing city government may better spend its money.
“Maybe we need new models of regional government. Maybe we need a closer working relationship…not just with our regional partners…but formal consolidations,” says Hollister, who says the panel will look at possibly merging government agencies with other municipalities, merging with other municipal government and potentially even a city-county merger.
