Lansing asks voters to restore its full 20-mill levy for police, fire and roads

LANSING, Mich. — Lansing voters will decide Nov. 3 whether to keep paying a little more in city property tax than state law would otherwise allow, in exchange for money the city says keeps dozens of police officers and firefighters on the payroll.

The ballot question asks to restore the city’s essential services levy to the full 20 mills its charter authorizes. Michigan’s constitutional rollbacks have trimmed the rate to 19.2214 mills, so a yes vote means an increase of 0.7786 mill, or about 78 cents for every $1,000 of taxable value, according to the ballot language posted by Ballotpedia.

The restored rate would run five years, from Jan. 1, 2027, through Dec. 31, 2031. If levied in full, the ballot language says, it would bring in about $2,585,101 in its first year. By The Mitten Daily’s math, the increase works out to roughly $58 a year on a home with a taxable value of $75,000.

City officials and the ballot language describe it as a renewal. Voters approved a similar restoration that covers 2022 through 2026, when the rollback had pushed the rate down to 18.8658 mills, according to that earlier ballot text.

“It funds approximately 29 police officers [and] 24 firefighters,” Jake Brower, the city’s chief strategy officer, told WILX News 10. He said that without the money the city would have less to spend on its current level of services.

The levy also pays for neighborhood street and sidewalk work. Andy Kilpatrick, Lansing’s director of public service, told the station that almost a quarter of the city’s local street projects come from it, and that residents would pay for crumbling roads one way or another if it fails.

For taxpayers, the question is narrow but real: the rollbacks exist to keep property taxes from rising faster than inflation, and a yes vote sets them aside for this levy for another five years. The measure needs a simple majority. The City Council placed it on the ballot.

Lansing is not alone. WKAR’s voter guide lists police and fire millages on the same ballot in Delhi, Meridian and Norvell townships.

Sources:
Ballotpedia, “Lansing, Michigan, Essential Services Millage Increase Measure (November 2026)” (ballot text), https://ballotpedia.org/Lansing,_Michigan,_Essential_Services_Millage_Increase_Measure_(November_2026)
WILX News 10, “Funding Lansing police and fire departments could come with an increased cost,” Oct. 5, 2026, https://www.wilx.com/2026/10/06/funding-lansing-police-fire-departments-could-come-with-an-increased-cost/
WKAR, “Election 2026: Your mid-Michigan voter guide for November county by county,” Oct. 3, 2026, https://www.wkar.org/election-2026/2026-10-03/election-2026-your-mid-michigan-voter-guide-for-november-county-by-county
BallotReady, “Essential Services Millage Restoration Proposal” (prior ballot text, 2022–2026), https://www.ballotready.org/measures/essential-services-millage-restoration-proposal
Photo: kennethaw88, “Firehouse No 7 Lansing,” Oct. 19, 2014, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), cropped and color-corrected, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Firehouse_No_7_Lansing.jpg

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