The state's high court has ruled that the controversial mayor of East Haven may not collect on his firefighter's pension while he is receiving his salary as mayor.

In a 22-page ruling scheduled for official release Tuesday, the court affirmed a lower New Britain Superior Court ruling. One of the key arguments that 65-year-old Mayor Joseph Maturo Jr. and his attorney made was that the State Employees Retirement Commission allowed him to collect both his annual mayoral salary as well as his firefighter pension when he was mayor from 1997 to 2007.

But when Maturo ran for mayor three years later and won, the commission's rules changed, and Maturo was told he could no longer collect income simultaneously from both sources.