Regional trail system funding

Ingham County seeks tax for county trail system maintenance and improvements

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When you run or ride your bike on a trail you don´t follow municipal lines.

You meander along a stream or river.

You get lost in the vista or the wildlife.

And before you know it you could have crossed from East Lansing to Lansing to Delhi Township, all in an afternoon trek.

The ride is a chance to appreciate the entire region’s beauty and the connection the trail system provided.

Ingham County commissioners want to sustain that system and build upon it with a millage.

The county is requesting 0.5 mills “for the purpose of creating and maintaining” a system of recreational trails and parks. The six-year tax would generate about $3.5 million the first year.

The owner of a home with a $100,000 taxable value would pay $50 a year for the trail tax.

Supporters say the millage would create funding for a county park system that has suffered from budget cuts.

At the ribbon cutting for the South Lansing Pathway earlier this month, Mayor Virg Bernero put in a plug for the millage.

The South Lansing Pathway will connect trails in Lansing with trails in Delhi Township.

“It’s about all of us working together for quality of life,” he said. “If you care about things like this it’s about regionalism and regionalism is on the ballot Nov. 4 because we’re talking about connecting regional trails and a little bit of a millage.”

He called it a “baby millage.” “We need just a little bit to grow this,” he said.

The millage would add trails and restore maintenance and improvement money for parks.

The Lansing Regional Chamber of Commerce opposes the parks millage.

“If passed, the millage would more than double the Ingham County parks annual budget, from $1.4 million to $3.5 million," wrote chamber President Tim Daman in a column for MLive. "It was troubling to learn that the County has no approved plan to show taxpayers how it would invest funds raised by the new parks millage.”

He wrote that the chamber supports regional approaches to government services.

“We suggest that our local elected officials come together and begin the discussion for developing a true county parks system, one that will continue to enhance the quality of life in our region and that is backed by a sensible, fair and transparent process,” he wrote.

“In the meantime, we urge a NO vote on the Ingham County Parks millage.”

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