Lansing City Council candidates differ on city tax proposal
LANSING — Brian Daniels and Ryan Kost might not share all the same views, but they do want the same thing – to serve on Lansing City Council as a 1st Ward member in 2023.
The city is hosting a special election Nov. 8 for the seat after controversial Council Member Brandon Betz resigned in January. Daniels was appointed to fill the vacancy that represents northeast Lansing and he and Kost are running in the nonpartisan race to fill the remainder of Betz's term, which expires in 2023.
Betz, a proponent of defunding the Lansing Police Department, resigned after a year of controversy. He was censured by fellow city council members and stripped of his committee assignments after sending a string of combative and profane text messages to Lansing activist Michael Lynn Jr.
Daniels and Kost have widely different views on the $175 million dollar fire and public safety tax initiative introduced in June that voters will decide in November. They also have diverging views on the city’s policing practices and whether Mayor Andy Schor's administration has done enough to promotediversity initiatives.
But they do agree they want to move past Betz’s controversy, see improved transparency in city government and want the city to continue to pay down more than $200 million in unfunded pension and retiree health care obligations.
Daniels said the city can contribute to that effort by increasing revenue by growing the economy and its tax base. Kost advocates for the city tightening spending and cutting subsidies. He used the subsidy the city gives to the Lansing Entertainment and Public Facilities Authority, which manages the Lansing Center, Jackson Field and Groesbeck Golf Course as an example.
Daniels, a 36-year-old small business owner, supports the city's $175 million tax proposal for public safety.
The proposal would cover the cost of building new or upgradingpublic safety facilities for the fire department, the police department - including the city detention center - and 54A District Court. The proposed millage rate is 3.90 mills for 30 years, so someone who owns a home with a taxable value of $50,000 would typically pay an additional $195 in taxes per year.
“I understand that increasing all of our taxes, I understand that that can be hard for families, it's going to be hard for my family,” Daniels said. “But that doesn't change the fact that it's an investment in Lansing. It's an investment in our future.”
He said if the city doesn’t address the public safety issue now, it’s kicking it down the road for future generations to deal with, so he’d rather be proactive.
Kost said he thinks the millage proposal was rushed and there are too many questions to move forward with the current proposal. Among questions the 34-year-old state worker has: What the new public safety building looks like and where site plans are. He said the proposal would cost him and his neighbors about $200 more in property taxes. He said there are many seniors in his neighborhood who don’t have the money.
“I've heard resoundingly, like 99% of the people I've talked to are not behind this building because they just don't have any way they can afford to pay more money in property taxes,” he said.
Kost said hedoesn’t think Schor’s administration has done enough to drive diversity and equity in the city.
He said there are homes in some majority minority neighborhoods in the 1st Ward owned by the Lansing Housing Commission that have "terrible conditions" that haven't been addressed when reported, such as standing water in basements and conditions that attract pests.
“We need to do a better job of taking the equation that we have, the pie if you will, of Lansing, and how we spend these funds, and make sure that we are distributing them in a way that is equitable for all of the citizens in Lansing, not just certain neighborhoods or downtown or other high demand areas,” he said.
Daniels said he thinks the administration is trying to improve and the Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion board wants to see more plans put into action.
“I do think that his administration does make a concerted effort as far as DEI goes,” he said. “I think that we're looking at systemic issues that are going to take a lot of work to undo to really bring any sort of equity to the city Lansing.”
Both raised code compliance as an issue in Ward 1.
Daniels said homes need to be brought up to code andthe city needs to enforce its codes. He said he thinks a large part of the city’s homeless population lives in the 1st Ward and officials need to make sure they get the services and help they need, which, “I think is crucial for the success of the entire ward.”
“And other than that, just continued economic development within the ward and making sure that small businesses are able to open and thrive here and we're able to draw people into Lansing instead of people just using Michigan Avenue as a way to get to East Lansing,” he said.
Kost said tackling housing issues is important to him, and he said he has concerns about code compliance not following through on houses they’ve red tagged as being unsafe.
In July 2020, Betz introduced a proposal to create a study committee tasked with reducing the police budget by 50% over the next five years. This was following calls from activists to defund the police and reinvest in organizations that support communities of color, but Daniels is "absolutely against" the defund the police movement.
He said the police department is doing the best it can with “honestly, limited resources.”
He said police are responding to a crime when it happens, but it's hard to do proactive policing without starting to stereotype. The police department is on the right track with officers changing why and how they pull people over, he said. In 2020, Lansing announced new guidelines that Lansing police would no longer stop drivers solely for defective equipment or other minor offenses that don't directly impact public safety, in part to eliminate bias-based traffic policing practices.
"But the police department itself is still understaffed and under budgeted for the work that we need to do, especially when we talk about the fact that we are trying to constantly grow, not only our population, but when we're increasing the number of low-income housing then you have to have the emergency services available to cover that low-income housing,” Daniels said.
Kost said defund the police is a “trigger word” and he wouldn’t use it, but like any government entity, reform is always possible and the police department should always open the door to reform.
With rising mental health issues and drug abuse in the country, use of force by police may not always be an appropriate measure for someone who doesn’t understand what is happening, he said. Kost said he’d like to see more funding in the police department for social worker and community policing programs.
“I'd also like to see what other cities that are our size or a little bit bigger around Michigan and around the country, how they have addressed this issue,” he said.
Both candidates have concerns about how city officials have used American Rescue Plan Act funds.Lansing received $49 million in federal relief money with $26.5 million used to fill budget holes.
Kost said he thinks the money could have been better used and had concerns about oversight of that money. Daniels voted against the ARPA resolution because he felt like a lot of the money ended up going to special projects instead of local nonprofits and charitable organizations, he said.
Kost also wants to build the parks systems back to “world class” because “they’ve seen some tough years” but his No. 1 priority is community and prioritizing the people in the ward first, people who have been left behind.
“So that's priority one is to give them a voice again and be focused on the people that live here. Because those are the people that that make Lansing great,” he said.
Brian Daniels
Age: 36
Family: Married to wife, Maggie; 9-year-old son Gabe.
Profession: Small business owner, EmPOWer Lansing gym, and appointed Lansing City Council Member.
Hometown: Lansing.
Education: Graduated from Grand Ledge High School. U.S. Army veteran. He attended the American Academy of Personal Training in New York where he became certified to be a trainer.
Ryan Kost
Age: 34
Family: Married to husband, Daniel.
Profession: Works for the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services in information technology.
Hometown: Lansing.
Education: Graduated from DeWitt High School then went right into the workforce.
Contact Bryce Airgood at 517-267-0448 or bairgood@lsj.com. Follow her on Twitter @bairgood123.
This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: Lansing City Council candidates disagree on public safety tax proposal
