Lansing mayor Virg Bernero plans to tell the city council tonight how he plans to cut nearly five million dollars to balance the capital city’s budget.
That fact that Lansing is only facing about a five million dollar budget gap next year is actually good news. Last fall, the mayor’s office was predicting the city might be facing up to a 15 million dollar shortfall.
But Mayor Bernero says voter approval of a special public safety millage, lower health care costs and more state revenue sharing money than expected has improved Lansing’s revenue picture.
However, Bernero says painful cuts are still needed to balance the city’s budget.
“Its got to the point as I stated in my State of the City…we just about have to do less with less," says Bernero.
Bernero says without additional concessions from the city’s unions Lansing will have to institute employee furlough days and possibly layoffs of some non-public safety employees.
