East Haven Cracking Down on Tax Delinquents

Mayor Joseph Maturo, Jr. announced today that via a press release in the first two and a half years since resuming office in November of 2011, the Town’s legal services department, in conjunction with the Tax Collector, has collected $2.2 million dollars in delinquent taxes, almost $900,000 more than was collected over the prior two and a half years.

Maturo explained, “Upon resuming office, we understood the critical need to increase revenue to rebuild our Town’s rainy day fund, which had been allowed to completely deteriorate under the prior administration. As a result, in addition to reducing spending, we made it a priority to crack down on tax scofflaws. I’m pleased to announce that since November of 2011, our team has collected an astounding $2.2 million dollars in delinquent taxes.”

Specifically, Finance Department records indicate that in fiscal years ’09-’10 and ’10-’11, the prior administration collected $481,509 and $619,777, respectively, in delinquent tax revenue. For the ’11-’12 fiscal year during which Mayor Maturo unseated former Mayor Capone, Capone’s administration collected $236,694 and Maturo’s team collected $354,436.44. However, for the ’12-’13 and ’13-’14 fiscal years, Maturo’s team collected an astonishing $853,400 and $995,603 dollars (see chart below).

Maturo explained, “The $2.2 million in delinquent tax collection represents a remarkable increase of 64% over the amount collected by the prior administration over the same period of time. Further, the $995,603 dollars collected this past fiscal year represents a modern record for the Town.”

Regarding the announcement, Town Attorney Joseph Zullo explained, “Mayor Maturo has been instrumental in giving Lisa Basilicato, the tax collector, and my team the resources to aggressively pursue delinquent tax accounts. Since 2011, he has consistently requested briefings on the status of our collections, especially our large delinquent accounts, and has pushed our team to maximize our collection numbers. Accordingly, our team of attorneys has responded with impressive results.”

Maturo noted, “The uptick in delinquent tax collections, in addition to the Town’s efforts to reduce operational costs, is a primary reason why the Town may be able to reduce the mill rate in June of 2015.”

Maturo concluded, “Ultimately, our goal is to provide the highest level of service to our residents while keeping our community an affordable place to live and do business. To that end, we will continue to aggressively pursue tax scofflaws with the goal of utilizing the monies collected to reduce the mill rate in the upcoming budget and beyond.”