Maturo: Budget Would Lead to Tax Break for Some (DOCS)

(Editor's Note: Mayor Maturo's full PowerPoint presentation from Thursday evening's special meeting is included in the gallery that accompanies this article.)

Although East Haven's mill rate would go up under his proposed town budget, Mayor Joe Maturo Jr says if his plan is passed many residents would actually see a decrease in their next tax bill due to the recent drop in the town's property values.

Mayor Maturo presented the final draft of his proposed 2012-13 budget to the Town Council last night during a special meeting at East Haven High School.

Overall Spending

The spending plan is a total of $86,918,754, which would represent a 2.79 percent expense increase of $1.1 million over .

This includes a proposed $44,800,000 board of education budget, which would be a $500,000 increase of some 1.1 percent.

Also included in the mayor's proposal is a $1.2 million contribution to the fund balance, as part of a plan to boost up the town's savings account — which currently sits at some $200,000 — by a total of $3.6 million over the next three years.

If approved by the Town Council, the mayor's budget would increase East Haven's mill rate from its current 26.59 to 30.95.

Mill Rate Increase

Maturo said without this increase, the town would face a $10 million shortfall in projected revenue due the 2011 revaluation, which lead to a 14.5 percent drop in the town's overall assessment — including a 17 percent drop in real estate values.

Because of that drop, however, the mayor said many homeowners would actually experience a reduction in the next annual property tax bill: anywhere from 1 to 17 percent.

In the PowerPoint presentation at Thursday's special meeting, the mayor gave two examples of homes that would experience a drop in their property tax bills — one of which was that of East Haven Democratic Town Committee Chairman .

Budget Changes

The final draft of the mayor's proposed spending plan for the new fiscal year, which begins July 1, is a slight change from released earlier this year. That budget's spending total sat at $87,008,944.

Throughout much of this month, the Board of Finance has held budget workshops reviewing the proposal. They returned the budget, with their recommended changes, last week.

Those recommendations are posted in this article's gallery.

Town Council

Town Council members will begin their review of the proposed budget, with their first budget workshop scheduled for April 5.

The council will then hold their public hearing on the general government portion of the budget on April 17 and the public hearing on the board of education portion of the budget April 19.

According to this year's budget workshop schedule, the Town Council is set to approve the town's final budget on April 23. The town charter mandates the council set the final budget by April 28.

The budget workshop schedule is posted in the gallery.