Dearest reader,
Lady Budgetdown has reached Step Five in Lansing Public School District, which means it is time to put the budgets beside the audits and see what actually happened. 🪶
And there is a distinction worth remembering:
Budgets are plans. Audits are actual results.
Lansing's last three audited General Fund results show:
📚 2022–23: +$11.22 million
Ending fund balance: $54.10 million
📚 2023–24: +$3.43 million
Ending fund balance: $57.53 million
📚 2024–25: −$5.41 million
Ending fund balance: $52.12 million
So after two years of increases, Lansing's audited General Fund moved in the opposite direction in 2024–25.
Meanwhile, each of the district's last four adopted budgets anticipated using General Fund balance:
2023–24: −$4.52 million
2024–25: −$9.93 million
2025–26: −$11.52 million
2026–27: −$8.31 million
But Lady Budgetdown will not confuse a projected deficit with an actual one. In fact, the 2023–24 budget anticipated using fund balance, while the subsequent audit ultimately showed the district added $3.43 million.
That is precisely why we keep both columns in the ledger.
And then there is one more item. 👀
Lansing's 2026–27 budget resolution contains two different appropriation totals.
One portion states:
$253,386,000
The individual appropriations listed in the same resolution total — and the document itself identifies as "Total Appropriated":
$254,106,000
Difference: $720,000.
Lady Budgetdown will not speculate about why those two numbers differ.
She will simply place both figures on the table exactly as Lansing Public School District reported them and circle the $720,000 difference in burgundy ink. 🪶
Because the job here isn't to invent explanations for discrepancies.
It is to notice them.
📚 Sources: Lansing School District Audited Financial Statements, FY 2022–23 through FY 2024–25; Lansing School District Budget Resolutions, FY 2023–24 through FY 2026–27.
#LadyBudgetdown #LansingSchools #MichiganSchools #SchoolFinance #EducationTransparency #FollowTheReceipts #WithReceiptsAndRespect