Council Pushes Budget Vote Back

East Haven residents must wait at least until next Tuesday to find out what their municipal tax rate will be.

The Legislative Town Council has decided to extend its budget deliberations until April 26, when it will hold a meeting to vote on the 2011-12 budget and set the next mill rate at a meeting at 7 p.m. at the .

Council leaders had hoped to vote on the budget Thursday at 7 p.m. in the Community Center, but that has been rescheduled as a workshop. Chairman James Dougherty said he expects to receive new budget information from the Board of Education and the school budget will be discussed at the workshop.

One piece of information is the property assessment revaluation. The new revaluation is currently being prepared, and city officials said there are indications that property values might drop because of the real estate slump lingering from the 2008 mortgage industry crisis.

If that happens, it could affect the mill rate, which would have to be raised to collect the same amount of tax revenue.

Mayor April Capone has proposed a modest cut in the tax rate from the present 26.84 mills to 26.25 mills in the .

Another factor is the state budget. Gov. Dannel Malloy’s budget proposal in February maintained levels of state aid to municipalities, but that depends on state employee unions giving in on contract concessions worth about $1.5 billion over two years.

So far, the unions haven’t agreed to those concessions, and Malloy said recently if he doesn’t get them he might have to cut grant aid to cities and towns by as much as 10 percent.

On April 19, council members held a budget workshop, going through several town budgets line-by-line to make adjustments.

Two of the most significant changes were transfers within the Fire Department and Police Department budgets. Neither change increased overall spending, but they reallocated funds from various line items to increase the overtime accounts for the two departments.

The originally requested $363,636 for its overtime account, but Capone recommended spending only $250,000. Council members decided to reallocate money to fund the overtime account at $330,000.

Fire Department overtime spending has been higher than usual lately because of firefighter injuries, according to town officials. The department must maintain minimum staffing levels for public safety reasons, so when a firefighter is injured another firefighter must be kept on duty and paid overtime to make up for it.

The requested $600,000 for overtime for the coming year, but Capone recommended $300,000. Council members increased the account to $433,437.

Town officials said a major reason for high overtime spending by the Police Department is the ongoing federal investigation into civil rights violations, in order to respond to plaintiff requests for information.