The Township of Maplewood is holding the second of three budget planning meetings this Saturday, Jan. 28 at Town Hall from 9 a.m. to noon.

During the meeting, department heads from the Health Dept., the Library, Municipal Court and Prosecutor, Recreation & Cultural Affairs, Finance, Tax & Sewer Fee Collection, Administration, Legal, HR, IT and Redevelopment will all present their budget requests and goals for 2012.

Last week, town leaders expressed their desire that the tax levy for the municipal budget be raised no more than 2% — and possibly less than that — for the 2012 budget year, despite the fact that the town could exceed the state-mandate 2% cap through the use of exceptions and banked cap from the 2011 budget.

Also at the Jan. 21 meeting, department heads from Fire, Police, Public Works and Engineering presented their goals and proposed budgets.

The third and final budget planning meeting will be held Saturday, Feb. 25. At that meeting, Construction and Code Officials and town-supported not-for-profit organizations — including the Springfield Avenue Partnership, YouthNet, the Community Coalition on Race, and the Maplewood Village Alliance — will present their budget requests. The town will also look at capital projects and revenue on that date.

Each of the Maplewood budget meetings takes place on a Saturday and starts at 9 a.m., ending by noon. All of the meetings will be locally televised on SOMAtv.

The budget process will also be impacted by the governor's State Budget address which is scheduled for Feb. 21.

The state has required that all municipal budgets be introduced by March 9 or the nearest regularly scheduled governing body meeting thereafter; budgets must be approved by April 20 or the nearest regularly scheduled governing body meeting thereafter.