Police building purchase makes little sense

The Michigan state Legislature recently approved a plan to move the Michigan State Police headquarters from its current location at 714 S. Harrison Road to a brand new facility in downtown Lansing. In doing so, the Legislature authorized purchasing property for $71 million.

The previous paragraph might have seemed perfectly normal a few years ago, before our nation’s recession and our state’s abysmal economic condition. But now, as Michigan faces a $2.8 billion budget deficit, spending more than $70 million on a shiny new police headquarters seems like a joke and raises several questions.

To begin with, MSU leases the current headquarters to the state for $1 per year. One might ask why the state doesn’t wait until the state is more financially secure to make the purchase. If the state waited, say, three years until it bought the new building, it would spend only $3 during the next three years, as opposed to $71 million. It seems like a fair concession to us.

One argument is that the current building is dilapidated and the Michigan State Police need a new facility to better meet its needs. This might be true, but it’s been reported that it would only take an estimated $1 million to repair the current building.

We wonder if the state has considered the option of renovating its current headquarters in favor of splurging on a new one. For only $1 million, the building easily could have been operational for another 20 years.

We’d also point out that $70 million is about half of the total funds for the Michigan Promise Scholarship, which likely will not survive. We realize the funds come from separate pots, but we’d like to point out to readers the gross size of this project. It’s unfortunate that the state feels the need to spend millions on a new building, but it can’t seem to scrounge up the money to help pay for students’ college education.

Another aspect of the deal that raises questions is that of the project’s developer, Joel Ferguson. Ferguson sits on the MSU Board of Trustees, which to us looks like an obvious conflict of interest. Ferguson developed the new headquarters for roughly $32 million, and it’s unlikely that he would advocate for anything but the purchase of his building.

He’s poised to make a ton of money on the deal — about $40 million — which should not go unnoticed. Although the deal with Ferguson might have seemed like a sound investment several years ago, buying the building now just seems reckless and irresponsible.

Furthermore, we can’t forget that in May, Michigan had to lay off 100 of its own state troopers — men and women who would be occupying the new building. The state should remember there’s no use in having a beautiful new building if there’s no staff to fill it.

Michigan’s students lost $140 million as a result of broken promises, but the state is bending over backward to keep its $70 million promise to Ferguson.

Forgive us for saying so, but that just doesn’t seem right.