Proposed county budget whittled down from 20% to 11.3% increase

The Washington County budget, as approved by the Washington County Budget Advisory Committee at a follow up meeting held on November 9, would see an 11.3% increase as opposed to the 20% increase initially proposed. The county commissioners will now review and consider approving the new budget at a meeting set for Wednesday, December 6, at 4 p.m.
The committee was informed right off the bat by committee Chair Lewis Pinkham that county Treasurer Jill Holmes had updated the previously proposed budget with revised health insurance costs, which had lowered the budget to a 17% increase, going from a budget of $8.678 million to $8.5 million. "That helped the budget," he said. However, he went on to note that he personally was not comfortable with an increase that exceeded 8.5%.
Baileyville Town Manager Chris Loughlin said of the 17% increase, "If I presented this in our own budget, no, they'd say no." A number of city and town managers echoed the sentiment, but they also felt as Calais City Manager Mike Ellis did when he said, "I want it to be known that the county department heads aren't asking irresponsibly. We know the need is there."
The largest increases seen in the initially proposed budget were in emergency management and law enforcement, with the Regional Communications Center (RCC) asking for four additional staff with an almost 32% hike in that line item. The sheriff's department was also asking for additional deputies, with an increase of almost 13% for the department.
The committee spent about two hours debating different scenarios, outlining the difficulty they were having. Treasurer Holmes, when asked what kind of dollar reduction would equate to reach a 8.5% increase, did calculations and noted that would mean cutting $621,125 from the $8.5 million budget. She was asked to calculate a few more scenarios, including the reduction of the building and grounds crew from one additional full time employee to a 30 hour employee, which would reduce the salary required as well as about $29,000 in a family health insurance plan. County employees working 30 hours or under do not receive county health insurance.
County commission Chair Chris Gardner suggested staggering employee hiring over the ensuing year, thus reducing the 2024 cost. "It gives a little bit of time," he said. "It's similar to what we have done in the past." He noted that there were two bills circulating in the legislature that might mean some additional state funding to help with rural county law enforcement. Pinkham responded that, even if the two bills passed, which was not a certainty, it would not help the 2024 budget. Loughlin noted that, with the tiered hiring, the deputy to be hired in the last quarter of 2024 would not be at all happy to be let go at the start of 2025 if no state funding were to appear.
After additional number crunching, the committee approved a budget that would allow for one additional full time sheriff's department deputy, two full time RCC employees and one part time 30 hour per week building and grounds employee, with an overall budget increase of 11.3%. In addition, the committee voted in favor of reconvening to discuss possible increases in staffing if the state should allocate additional law enforcement and emergency management funding to the county.