East Haven’s newly approved budget for the 2023-’24 fiscal year calls for a 2.56% increase in overall spending while maintaining the current mill rate without cutting back on essential services.

The budget, which the East Haven Town Council approved on April 25, will see a total of $100,975,764 in spending. This is an increase of $2,518,889 from the current year’s budget, which is $98,446,865.

The current 2022-’23 budget will expire on June 30, after which the newly approved expenditures will go into effect the following day, July 1.

Amongst the biggest drivers of the new budget are increases in services provided by public safety departments, East Haven Recreation, and the East Haven Board of Education (BOE).

Public Safety and Emergency Services

Public safety and emergency services and personnel, including police, fire, animal control, and first responders, were approved for a 2.7% increase in the new budget. Part of this increase will go to support costs for new equipment as well as gas and disease fuel used by departments.

“Our residents rely on our services, obviously, and that takes a toll on our equipment, our gear, and that, of course, has an increased cost,” said Michelle Benivegna, director of administration and management. “The mayor works very closely with the chiefs to be prepared for these costs. It’s important that he has his guys and women protected.”

The fire and police departments responded to a combined total of 36,148 calls in 2022, and supplying appropriate amounts of dollars for fuel and better equipment is necessary to support their highly demanded services.

Included in the overall increase for public safety is a 15% increase in information technology (IT). The increased expenditures make good on one of Mayor Joseph Carfora’s biggest goals since his first mayoral campaign in 2019, “to bring the town into the 21st century” and away from its previous “archaic” state, technologically.

One of the major examples of this is strengthening the town’s cybersecurity infrastructure to be less vulnerable to cyberattacks. This had been a previous concern for the town that has been vastly improved through a more organized email system for its employees while introducing new technological assets such as laptops with cameras for Zoom meetings on hopping onto a more robust fiber-optics internet connection.

“We were susceptible to cyberattacks before. With the IT department and everything they’ve done, we’re protected,” said Ed Sabatino, assistant director of administration and management.

Improvements in IT, many of which took place during the shift to virtual work due to the coronavirus pandemic, saw East Haven “be one of the most successful towns during COVID to carry out business,” said Benivegna.

Funding for improved IT extends to the town’s new online permitting system. Sabatino said such a system “allows for a lot of flexibility for a business person” and can help boost economic development.

Recreation

The biggest driver of increased expenditures for the recreation department are those associated with the renovated Pasquale G. “Patsy” DiLungo Veterans Memorial Ice Rink, which received a nearly 48% increase within the department. Town officials said this increase is mainly to support staff and events at the venue, which Carfora said is earning the town “astronomical amounts of revenue” since its re-opening in November 2022.

Overall, the department received a 15.5% increase in spending. Town officials lauded the efforts of department head Liz Franco-Spano and her colleagues for their work at the ice rink and for making the overall department a more robust town body that is attentive to its residents.

“You could take one program alone like pickleball…I just remember, as a resident, when we started, there were two pickleball courts that were going to be open, and they were going to start, and within a week, there were eight pickleball programs going on,” said Sabatino. “That was [Franco-Spano] realizing that there was room to grow this thing immediately.”

Board of Education

Amongst the most critical issues facing East Haven was teacher retention for its public schools, as was a prominent issue addressed in Carfora’s State of the Town speech on March 29. To maintain a strong and sustainable cohort of teachers, the budget calls for a $900,000 increase in teacher salaries, the largest since 2014, according to Carfora.

“That’s been a big thing for me because we’re losing a lot of quality teachers. There was a contract discussion about it, and I supported it 100%,” said Carfora. “I wanted to make sure that our teachers are happy being here and they stay here. I think overall, not only the retention part of it, but I think the teachers feel more appreciated that someone is looking after them and seeing what they do.”

Mill Rate

The Town Council has been able to maintain the current rate of 31.2 mills in the new budget without cutting back on essential services, said Carfora. He reflected on the ability of the town to craft a manageable budget that balances an unaltered tax rate, boosts pay for teachers, and keeps vital town services as fully funded as possible.

“I feel proud with [that] increase, and we were able to do it and still keep our mill rate the same, and we didn’t cut back on services,” he said. “We fully supported our public safety, and I stand by those guys 100%. I will not cut back on public safety at all.”

Looking to the future, Benivegna said the town would continue its determination to pursue new grant opportunities, a priority with the new budget.

“I always jump at those opportunities. That’s one of my personal goals going into this new budget year — to actively go after some more grants and be successful in attaining them,” she said.

With a rainy day fund of $7,252,881, which is the highest for East Haven since 2004, Carfora is optimistic about the town's future, given its financial stability and potential growth and opportunity ahead.

“Since I took office, I [have] increased the rainy day fund by 155%. We’re very mindful of where the money goes. We’re always trying to get creative to bring more revenue, and our bond rating is stable and it’s increasing. So we’re financially strong, and we’re getting stronger. With all the improvements that we did in town, our town is looking great. There’s still a lot more work to do, and we’re committed to doing it. We’re looking forward to more good things coming to town.”