East Lansing could raise taxes or scale back police and fire services if state funding decreases, as it has in the past seven years.

"We've got fewer police officers today than we did seven years ago, fewer firefighters, less repair of city infrastructure," East Lansing City Manager Ted Staton said. "It has affected just about everything that we do."

If funds continue to decrease, the East Lansing City Council would take measures to combat the funding gap.

"I would suspect that, depending on how much it was reduced, we would have to go back to city staff to see what, if any, recommendations could be made to help counteract that," Mayor Pro Tem Vic Loomis said.

The city has received $80,000 less than anticipated this year, said Connie Larkin, East Lansing's assistant finance director.

Although the city has reduced its police officers and on duty firefighters, it is in better shape than some Michigan communities.

"East Lansing has weathered the storm better than many communities because we've seen some economic growth," Staton said, adding that development projects in the Northern Tier, such as the Chandler Crossings apartments, among others, have generated revenue.

The city also has coped with the decline in funding because of an increase in property taxes, which isn't ideal, said Todd Sneathen, East Lansing's director of public works and environmental services.

Some East Lansing homeowners aren't happy about higher property taxes.

John Robison, who lives in the Bailey neighborhood, said he pays too much in property taxes and has appealed the city about the high cost of living here.

"It seems for the service we get, it's too much money," he said.

"I don't feel like the city has done enough to try and protect the neighborhood, to try to promote families moving into these areas. The only way for neighbors and the neighborhoods to let the council know is to appeal and protest the taxes."

During the past seven years, the amount of money Michigan cities and villages received from the state's revenue sharing program has decreased by a total of $481 million. In the 2000-01 fiscal year, the state granted more than $1.5 billion to cities and villages - it could dole out about $1 billion in the current fiscal year.

In 2007, Michigan cities received $406 million in statutory payments, less than half of the $963 million the state initially budgeted for the fiscal year.

Gov. Jennifer Granholm's current budget proposal would increase revenue sharing payments, said Greg Bird, spokesman for the Office of the State Budget. The 2008 budget proposal calls for an increase of about $28 million from last year's estimates, even in the face of the state's looming $1.8 billion budget deficit.

This would be done by a combination of cuts to government spending, reforms and new sources of revenue, Bird said.

The new sources of revenue include a proposed luxury tax on tickets to concerts, professional sporting events and golf course memberships and tax loopholes to create additional revenue and an increase to the state income tax.

"It's a move back in the right direction, but it doesn't get us anywhere close to where we were," Staton said. "It's not enough to consider reinstating police positions or have more firefighters on duty every day."

Ryan Beene can be reached at beenerya@msu.edu.