The Waldo County Budget Committee voted Friday to approve the county’s fiscal year 2026 budget, bringing an end to a lengthy and contentious process that saw multiple revisions to the spending plan and months of debate among county commissioners, county residents and the committee tasked with adopting the final package.
The next step for the proposed FY 2026 county package is a public hearing, tentatively scheduled for 6 p.m. on March 27 in the Probate Courtroom of the Waldo County Judicial Center.
The nine-member Budget Committee endorsed what had become the sixth version of the proposed budget during a meeting that lasted more than three hours. The vote effectively finalized the county’s spending plan for the coming fiscal year — provided it passes muster at the March 27 hearing.
The adopted budget represents an increase of roughly 16% over the county’s 2025 budget — a substantial jump but one that is significantly smaller than the increase originally proposed late last year.
The Budget Committee balked at an initial proposal that called for raising spending by more than double that amount, prompting repeated negotiations between the three Waldo County commissioners, who draft the budget, and the Budget Committee, which has the final authority to approve it under Maine law.
The county’s first budget draft, presented in December 2025, called for an increase of roughly 36% over the previous year’s spending plan, generating immediate pushback from taxpayers, town leaders and Budget Committee members who warned that such an increase would place significant pressure on municipal property taxes across Waldo County.
In response to those concerns, county commissioners spent the following weeks revising the budget, trimming expenses and adjusting department requests. A revised version released in January reduced the proposed increase to approximately 17%, but Budget Committee members continued to press for more cuts.
Throughout the winter budget meetings, several committee members argued that the increase should be held closer to 10%. Commissioners, however, repeatedly cautioned that achieving reductions at that level would likely require eliminating staff positions or scaling back services provided by county departments.
Another revised budget presented in February brought the increase down further, with projections ranging from about 13.6% to roughly 17%, depending on the version under discussion. Even with those adjustments, committee members continued to review line items and question whether additional savings could be found.
By the time the Budget Committee convened for its Friday meeting, commissioners had produced what they described as the most realistic spending plan possible without cutting positions or jeopardizing the county’s core services.
Much of the debate during the meeting focused on the reality that a large portion of county spending is tied to personnel and mandated services, limiting the committee’s ability to reduce costs further without major structural changes. Several committee members said that while they had hoped to push the increase closer to 10%, many of the remaining costs in the budget were effectively fixed.
The Waldo County Sheriff’s Office, for instance, represents one of the largest components of the county budget, reflecting the county’s responsibility to provide law enforcement services to most communities in Waldo County outside Belfast, which maintains its own municipal police department. The sheriff’s office patrols the county’s rural towns and unorganized areas, covering tens of thousands of residents across a largely rural region.
Corrections and jail-related expenses also account for a significant portion of county spending, as do employee wages, health insurance and retirement costs. Commissioners have said these expenses have risen steadily with inflation in recent years and are difficult to control without reducing staff.
Still, over six revisions, the budget process drew increased public scrutiny on the county’s finances, including concerns about delayed financial audits that are several years behind schedule.
County leadership also changed during the process. Longtime Waldo County Commissioner Betty Johnson died earlier this year and was replaced by Breanna Pinkham-Bebb, appointed by Gov. Janet Mills under Maine vacancy laws, while Commissioners Timothy Parker and Kevin Kelley both joined the commission in early 2025.
With the Budget Committee’s vote now near complete, the county will attempt to move forward with a public hearing that will decide if the packet gets a seventh iteration.
This story appears through a media partnership with Midcoast Villager.