Waldo County’s budget is on track to soar by 36% in 2026, an increase of more than $4.6 million, if its proposed budget is approved after a public hearing and vote on Friday.
The jump is largely driven by employee benefits, followed by information technology costs and assorted increases in other categories, according to a copy of the draft budget posted on the county’s website. At least one of the county’s 26 municipalities has responded with concerns about increasing property taxes and a lack of explanation from the county ahead of Friday’s hearing.
The midcoast county is the latest in Maine to propose a substantial budget jump for 2026, along with Knox, Penobscot and Washington counties. It comes at a time when towns are already grappling with increases to their property taxes because of higher municipal and school costs.
“An increase of this magnitude is unimaginable, particularly in the absence of a more detailed explanation,” Lincolnville’s select board chair, Stephen Hand, wrote to commissioners Monday on behalf of the town. “The taxpayers of our community, and likely those of every other community in Waldo County, cannot reasonably absorb such an enormous increase.”
In Waldo County, the three elected commissioners recommend a budget each year, which then is reviewed by a nine-member budget committee that votes on final numbers.
The overall proposed county budget, including jail costs, would increase more than 36%, or by $4,635,178, for a total of $17,414,019; the jail budget itself, which is capped by state law, would be lower than it is this year.
More than $3 million of the increase is in employee benefits, adding up to more than $5.4 million for that budget category alone, according to the draft. Another substantial increase is in information technology, which would rise 282% from $229,548 to $878,484.
The three commissioners and multiple budget committee members did not return requests for comment Wednesday.
The latest budget committee meeting minutes available on the county website Wednesday, from late October, show that in past years, only health insurance premiums were considered during budget deliberations, not the full costs of the county’s health insurance program.
“Never before have all the payments that the County has actually been paying been seen,” the minutes state.
The health insurance costs for county employees were the major increase driver, committee member Breanna Pinkham Bebb wrote in a Tuesday update for the town of Northport, where she chairs the select board. Information technology costs also are jumping; helping to make the sheriff’s department “modern, dependable [and] compliant” is one example, she wrote.
“The proposed county budget increase means a huge hit for taxpayers,” Bebb wrote, noting the committee spent 30 hours in meetings and reduced the budget from the commissioners’ initial figures. “It is painful to all of us.”
Bebb said the proposal is more “realistic” and “financially sound” than pulling from reserve accounts, and that the county is catching up on financial audits. A shortage of auditing firms has delayed audits for towns and school districts across Maine for years, sometimes contributing to budget shortfalls.
The county also now has a skilled finance director after recent turnover, and could save money next year if it stops “self-insuring” employees, Bebb wrote on Northport’s website. That’s a form of insurance where employers collect premiums and pay claims instead of going through an outside provider; the county has been trying to find a health insurance company to replace its current system, according to meeting minutes.
Bebb didn’t respond to a request for further comment Wednesday.
She also said commissioners and the budget committee have been transparent and accountable throughout the process.
Not all towns feel the same way. Lincolnville’s select board wrote to commissioners on Monday that they owed a “full explanation” to select boards and every resident of the county.
“Adopting the proposed budget ‘as is’ without any additional explanation to the residents of
the County is a disservice by the County Commissioners,” wrote Hand, the board chair.
Members plan to ask officials to justify the new expenditures at Friday’s hearing and urge them to amend the budget to “to a level of spending that ensures efficient and effective county operations while remaining mindful of the taxpayers’ ability to pay,” according to Hand.
The final budget committee meeting and hearing on the budget runs from 6-9 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 12 at the commissioners’ courtroom in Belfast at 39B Spring Street, and on Zoom. After the hearing, the committee is set to vote on the budget, according to the meeting agenda.