Maturo Implements Spending Freeze Due to Reduction in State Aid, Blasts Malloy

EAST HAVEN, CT – Mayor Joseph Maturo Jr. announced Friday that he is instituting an immediate spending freeze for both town and school expenditures due to Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s mid-year cuts to education aid to municipalities.

Maturo explained, "Due to Governor Malloy's mid-year education cuts, East Haven is set to receive over $145,000 less in aid than was promised to the Town for the current fiscal year. While we certainly have cause to celebrate last year's strong operating surplus, the Governor's decision has forced the Town and the Board of Education to institute an immediate spending and hiring freeze to prevent a deficit in this budget."

Maturo continued, "It is hard enough that most municipalities pass an operating budget after the State passes its budget. However, it's repugnant and unfair for the Governor to make these cuts and play this budget shell game midyear, especially since municipalities now have less than six full months to respond to the cuts."

On the Town side of the budget, Maturo indicates that he will immediately require all purchase orders in excess of $30 to require his personal approval.

Board of Education Chairman John Finkle indicates that his Board may retain the Town's independent auditor to perform a quick Board-specific fiscal analysis and forecast to supplement data from the Board's finance department to identify potential areas of savings in the current budget.

Finkle explained, "It is going to be my recommendation, at the next Board of Education meeting, that we engage the Town's independent auditor to both analyze the data maintained by our finance department and develop a detailed fiscal forecast for the Board with the goal of identifying areas where we can make up the $145,000 we've been short-changed."

Maturo explained, "In addition to instituting this spending freeze, I have reached out to State Senator Len Fasano to inquire about introducing legislation to restore the $50 million in funding cuts by the Governor and to address the long-term ECS funding issue. Senator Fasano indicates that he will be meeting with legislators in the coming week to discuss short term and long term measures to address both issues."

Maturo concluded, "We are being proactive in response to these cuts because our children are a priority and they deserve every dollar in funding that they were promised by the Governor. We're hopeful that Senator Fasano will be successful reversing the Governor's cuts. However, in the meantime, we're going to do everything we can locally to mitigate these cuts until the State comes up with a solution."

Originally written by Jack Kramer, Patch Correspondent

(Editor's Note: We first published this story earlier in the week and here it is again in case you missed it)