East Haven School Budget Public Hearing

residents will have an opportunity to voice their opinion on M's proposed 2012-13 school budget at a special public hearing tonight at the at 7 p.m.

Mayor Maturo's 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.

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.

Budget Information

The mayor's draft budget documents and PowerPoint budget presentation, which was made as part of last month's , are included in the gallery that accompanies this article.

Also, East Haven Politics blogger Ed Foley has posted a video recording of the town council's April 12 budget workshop in which they reviewed the proposed school budget.

General Government

In addition to discussing the school budget, this evening esidents will be able to discuss the general government portion of the budget as well, according to the special meeting's agenda (which is posted in the gallery).

The requires that separate public hearings are held for both the town and the school side of each year's proposed budget.

The town council held the required hearing on the town government side of the budget on Tuesday.

17 Percent Rollback?

That meeting, however, was sparsely attended with only one resident rising to speak, according to a New Haven Register report.

Former Town Finance Director Thomas Thompson — who served under East Haven's previous Mayor April Capone — reportedly asked council members the status of the 17 percent tax roll back, which was a campaign promise allegedly made by Maturo during last fall's election season.

The Register's Jennifer Swift reported that Thomson was told he should address his tax roll back question directly to the mayor and not council members.

Budget Vote Monday

According to this year's budget workshop schedule, the Town Council is set to approve the town's final budget this Monday, April 23.

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