How Michigan State University shapes East Lansing — including your taxes

Just as Ann Arbor has the University of Michigan, East Lansing has Michigan State — and the university shapes the city in much the same way. MSU was founded in 1855 as a pioneering “land-grant” college, built to teach farming and practical science to ordinary people; it opened a full seven years before the federal law that spread the land-grant idea nationwide, and it grew into one of the largest universities in the country, with more than 50,000 students. It’s East Lansing’s biggest employer by far and the engine of the local economy. For a homeowner, the catch is the familiar one: as a public university, MSU pays no property tax on its enormous campus, which takes a big share of East Lansing off the tax rolls. That’s a major reason the city added an income tax in 2019 — it’s how the city gets MSU’s thousands of employees to help pay for services (more on that in our income-tax note). The university’s size also keeps student housing in heavy demand, which pushes up rents and prices near campus. The upside is a small city with big-city perks — the Wharton Center, Big Ten sports, and football Saturdays at Spartan Stadium, which seats about 75,000 and is the tallest building in town. For a buyer, the short version: MSU is why East Lansing is what it is, including a smaller taxable land base and a city income tax to help make up for it.