An advisory committee on Thursday night approved a version of the 2026 Penobscot County budget with an additional $1 million in cuts and $128,000 in added revenue.
The cuts and revenue did not come from specific county departments, meaning the county commissioners are now tasked with making specific cuts and additions from other departments before voting to approve or amend it.
The county originally brought a $36.1 million budget to the committee in November, which the 15 members partially approved. That budget, if fully approved, would have brought a nearly 20% increase in the county share of property tax bills, which additionally include municipal and school levies.
Commissioners Andre Cushing, David Marshall and Dan Tremble returned to the budget committee with an amended $35.3 million budget on Dec. 11. That budget would have raised taxes for county government by 16.5%.
With the additional $1 million removed in the budget that the committee approved on Thursday, taxpayers would see a roughly 16% increase in the cost of county government.
The county’s proposed 2026 budget spiked from 2025 as soaring costs of the Penobscot County Jail created a budget gap that emerged in 2021. The majority of the increase for 2026 comes from the jail budget that had a $3.5 million shortfall as of the beginning of the year. Funding the jail through undesignated funds instead of budget funds in previous years has created a $7 million budget crisis.
The jail’s expenses grew as police arrested more people than the building could hold, forcing the county to pay to board inmates in other counties. Boarding costs account for $2.3 million of the jail’s expenses.
The committee will not meet again to discuss or vote on the budget.
Penobscot County Commissioners will have the final vote on the budget on Dec. 23 at 10 a.m. A unanimous vote from the three county commissioners is required to override the proposed budget.
Commissioners were unclear if a unanimous decision is required for each department’s budget and said they plan to seek legal advice.
The approval put the budget process in “uncharted waters,” Cushing said, because the committee has previously approved the individual cost centers before it has gone to the commissioners for a vote.
Members of the 15-member budget committee said they were worried about pushing a large tax increase onto their constituents.
Two hours of discussion on cuts and possible state legislative changes led committee member and Brewer Mayor Jenn Morin to motion for the commissioners to cut $1 million from the bottom line instead of going through each cost center individually.
“We are not well suited to determine each department,” Morin said.
More collaboration, transparency and communication was called for by the committee multiple times. The meeting began with members unanimously passing a resolution for commissioners to establish more working groups, research changing to a July fiscal year and share more information on audits and the budget process.
After more than an hour of discussion, Morin’s motion was approved with a 8-4 vote by the committee with one abstention.
Other members of the committee — Hampden Town Councilor Matthew LaChance, Alton Select Board Member Brenda Kennedy-Wade, former Congressman Mike Michaud and Maine Rep. James Dill, D-Old Town — voted no.
Committee member and Holden Councilor Ellen Campbell abstained from the vote after saying “this has become so convoluted and confusing that I don’t think I can vote on it with any confidence.”
Along with the cuts, the motion requires the county to use $127,800 in revenue collected in 2025 to reduce the tax burden.
The only department that will not be affected by the changes is the Registry of Deeds.
The registry budget won’t be affected because the committee had already approved the funding before the motion was made.
The approval requires all cuts from the jail budget be equally cut from the jail cap. The jail cap is the amount of funding given from the state to fund county jails.
Marshall and Tremble spoke against the broad motion to cut from the budget.
“I don’t think we need to take a butcher knife to something that needs a scalpel,” Tremble said.
The budget is already “lean” and further cuts could hinder county services, Marshall said.
Multiple members who supported the motion said the cut would be a step forward explaining the increase to their constituents during economically hard times.
“The elephant in the room is that the state of Maine financially, especially in our part of the state, the rural communities and Penobscot County, is shot. It’s going to be a long winter,” Rep. Steven Foster, R-Dexter, said.
Correction: a previous version of this story misidentified which county department would not be affect by the proposed reduction, and which year the additional revenue would come from.