East Haven Town Budget: Maturo Proposes 0.55 Percent Increase

[Editor's Note: This article was edited at 9:45 a.m. to clarify the mayor's current proposed budget is actually $87,185,04 or an 0.55 percent increase, and not $90,095,675 or a 3.91 percent increase, which was the amount originally request by the town's department heads. EHP apologizes for the confusion. Both budgets are included in the attached PDF.]

East Haven Mayor Maturo has put forward an initial proposed 2013-14 spending plan of $87,185,04, which represents a 0.55 percent increase — or $476,295 more than .

The draft budget includes two major components:

• Board of Education - $44,310,133; a 1.09 percent reduction or $489,867 less than the current 2012-13 budget
• Municipal Appropriations - $42,874,916; a 2.31 percent increase or $966,162 more than the current town budget

Dept Heads Budget Reduced

The heads of each town department requested a budget that totaled $90,095,675, which added up to a 3.91 increase.

Mayor Maturo, however, sharpened his pencil and cut some $2.1 million from those requests, bringing the draft spending plan down to only a 0.55 percent increase.

The mayor's proposed budget, which also includes the original budget requests from town department heads, is attached to this post as a PDF document.

BOF, Town Council Reviews

Maturo submitted his draft budget to the Board of Finance on Friday. The finance board will now begin the process of reviewing the document and then passing along their recommendations.

The budget will be returned to the mayor, who will then finalize his requests and submit his final proposed plan to the town council.

Maturo must submit his budget to the town council by March 31 as mandated by the East Haven Town Charter.

Town Council members will then begin their review of the proposed budget, including separate public hearings next month on the education and town side of the budget, on the way to its final approval.

The town charter mandates the council set and approve the final budget by April 28.