On April 10, the Lansing City Council meeting included a presentation by Consumers Energy concerning a personal property tax exemption. The proposal was presented by Kris Klein and Brad Krabel.
“The new site will have a sharing of tax revenues collected on the site, including the city of Lansing as well as the income tax – which is key retaining those employees within city of Lansing as far as paying income taxes,” said Klein, the vice president of Lansing’s Economic Development Corporation (LEDC).
The presentation pertained to a new Consumers Energy utilities center at 7000 North Canal Rd, Dimondale. The center’s new location is in Windsor Charter Township, more than seven miles away from Lansing’s Capitol building.
“We’ll be supporting office and field crew from this facility, both for the delivery of electric and national gas service to the greater Lansing Area,” said Krabel, the director of real estate acquisitions at Consumers Energy.
Krabel also announced the service center will replace Consumers Energy’s existing facility on Willow Street noting it had been open since 1957. The new facility in Dimondale will reportedly support about 200 jobs.
Lansing CTV (City Council Meeting)
(Left to right) Kris Klein and Brad Krabel begin presenting the Consumers Energy location and tax exemption proposal.The new location and redevelopment of the Willow Street property was overlooked by many members of the board asking about the possible tax exemption being proposed.
“This is a personal property tax exemption, it’s for new investments in personal property. This includes office equipment, computers, equipment and alike,” said Klein. “So any existing or relocated personal property from this Willow Street location will not be exempted from taxes.”
Consumers Energy is requesting a “328 personal property tax exemption”, which would allow for a 100% tax exemption if located inside of an eligible distressed community.
“There are two steps to this process [a tax abatement], it’s establishing a district, and then the application for certificate,” said Klein. “Both of those require two separate processes and approvals.”
During the public comment on legislative matters portion of the meeting, Loretta Stanaway shares her concerns on the cost of natural gas usage.
“We look at the fact that the Biden administration is apparently conducting a war on natural gas usage projections for what city residents, who are the only users of electricity from your projections, might be very far off,” said Stanaway. “Because if administration is able to restrict gas stoves, projections are not gonna hold.”
In other news, Lansing City Clerk Chris Swope announced the opening of four spots on the City Council. The applications are due on April 25 at 4 p.m.
“Two at-large seats to be elected as well as the first and third wards seats. You can contact my office by calling 311 or you can stop in. You can file with a filing fee of $100,” said Swope. “People can file in one stop if they choose, the other alternative is to collect petition signatures.”
Mayor Andy Schor promoted the Mobile Food Pantry in Lansing on Saturday, April 15, 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. The location of the food distribution is at Lansing Catholic Central, according to Schor.