East Lansing Parks Budget Cut Questioned Following Year-End Surplus

At the end of June, East Lansing’s fiscal year will wrap up with a surplus exceeding $500,000 in the city’s general fund, despite initially being projected to run at a more than $2 million deficit. 

The surplus was largely driven by savings from staff vacancies, revenue that went back to the city from the Lansing Board of Water & Light franchise fee settlement, income tax revenue that carried over from the previous year and delayed capital improvement projects that the city still plans to complete in the future. 

Some city officials and members of a volunteer committee reviewing city finances have said they believe the city is budgeting too conservatively, after year-end results did not carry the deficits they were projected to in some recent years. 

The city has an essentially balanced budget for its next fiscal year, which starts in July. The budget was reached after a series of adjustments, including changes made to pull expectations closer to year-end outcomes, like projecting staff vacancies and anticipating some costs are covered by grant revenue. 

One of the most significant adjustments was a roughly $400,000 cut from the city’s Parks, Recreation and Arts Department budget, slashing about 15% of the amount the department was initially to take from the general fund. 

Now, members of the volunteer commission that helps oversee the parks department are concerned that the cuts are unnecessary and about long term funding for the department. 

The cut was recommended by then-City Manager Robert Belleman late in the budget process after volunteers on the city’s volunteer Parks and Recreation Advisory Commission spent months reviewing line items and recommending a budget. 

“I think the way this budget was handled was ham-fisted and basically sort of on the fly is how it felt, and with little consideration towards the volunteers who dedicate their time … to try to assist with that process,” Commissioner Adam DeLay said on a phone call with East Lansing Info. 

Parks and Recreation Advisory Commission Chair Sarah Reckhow shared DeLay’s frustration, noting that the city’s approach seemed to plan for the worst-case scenario at the expense of real-world services.  

“I understand that … you can plan for the scenario in which you would spend the most amount of money to avoid a deficit, but I’m wondering if the outcome of planning that way is making these preemptive cuts, which in the case of parks and recreation, maybe some of them could’ve been avoided,” Reckhow said. 

DeLay praised city staff for absorbing the cut by restructuring the budget to slightly increase fees and make other adjustments across the many facilities and programs the department manages, but also questioned if the city needed to slash funding.

“I think the staff there really did a great job of … putting something together that really, I think, spread out the burden,” DeLay said. “But then to kind of turn around and find out that either: A, none of that needed to be done at all, or B, at least not to the scale that it was done, is certainly frustrating.” 

Reckhow worries about the long term consequences of the cut. Typically, when a general fund allocation is reduced, that lower amount becomes the department’s new baseline, she said. Both she and DeLay are worried that the department will experience further cuts in future fiscal years. 

DeLay pointed to priorities expressed by Mayor Erik Altmann last year on the East Lansing Insider podcast. Altmann said you can run a city without parks and recreation, but that public safety and public works budgets cannot be reduced any further. 

This was the second year in a row the parks department faced a dramatic funding change late in the budget season. Last year, Belleman proposed funding the department through a property tax increase to replace general fund contributions. However, 61% of voters were against the tax increase at the November 2025 election. 

With the city and Belleman recently parting ways, Reckhow hopes the next city manager tells the commission of changes that may be necessary sooner in the process. 

“I was never happy with the last minute approach and that was not my experience earlier on under the previous city manager,” she said.