Property tax bill headaches plague Lansing

LANSING, Mich. (WLNS) — Just under 16,000 Lansing residents got a shock in the mail with their summer tax bill — it likely wasn’t theirs.

Scott Bean, a spokesman for the city, says a technical error resulted in property owners who pay their taxes through escrow receiving an incorrect bill. The bills are marked “copy.” Bean says its unclear if an early June upgrade to the city’s BS&A property records system played a role in the errors.

Escrow accounts were assessed with the correct tax bill.

He says the correct amount due for summer taxes is available on the city’s website database, and that the city is working to mail out correct copies of the summer tax bills to property owners.

The error will cost the city, Bean says.

“Our printer ‘Extend Your Reach’ is reprinting the bills  at their expense of $2,116.13. (These are expected to be in the mail by tomorrow),” Bean wrote in an email to 6 News Tuesday. “The city will incur an additional cost of $7,738.15 to pay for the postage.”

How to Verify Your Property Tax Bill in Lansing

To access your property information on the city’s BS&A database, visit the city assessor’s website .

Once on this site, click the “Property Information Lookup” button on the left-hand side.

This button will take you to the city’s BS&A website. That’s the property management database. You will see the following screen.

Enter your street address in the area provided. Do not include city, state or zip code. Some street addresses may vary in entry in the database. For instance, Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd. appears as MLK, M L K and other variations. You may have to play with the address to find the correct property.

As an example, 6 News has used Lansing City Hall’s address of 124 Michigan Ave. Here’s what the screen will look like when the property address is entered.

Once you have the screen showing your property, click on the property with a parcel number. Some properties will have multiple options including customer identifications.

Once you have selected the correct property and parcel, you will see a screen showing a photo of your property. It will look similar to this.

To identify how much in taxes are due, click the “Tax Information (2024)” tab.

This tab will open a page that looks like this:

Scroll down on this screen to see the amount of taxes due, as well as what those summer and winter taxes on the property have been in the past.

The amount shown for 2024 Summer taxes will be correct, city officials tell 6 News.

If the taxes appear higher than expected, return to the Property Information 2024 tab and scroll down to verify the assessed value of the property and whether or not a homestead exemption has been filed for the property.

UPDATE: This post has been updated to include the additional costs incurred from the error.

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