Penobscot County went more than $5 million over budget in 2024, according to a new audit, which drained millions from the county’s general fund account.
The overspending was caused by the Penobscot County Jail going underfunded and multiple county departments going over budget. The spending reduced the county’s general fund — already depleted in 2023 — from roughly $381,000 to a negative balance of more than $4.1 million, according to the audit.
Penobscot County’s total value, which is a combination of all accounts, assets, revenues and expenses, was $11 million, a more than $1.5 million loss compared with the previous year, the audit showed.
County Commissioners Dan Tremble, Andre Cushing and David Marshall have not accepted the audit yet despite it being completed in August. The commissioners are waiting for a meeting with the auditors before doing so.
The 2024 audit, which is the second completed this year, further shows how Penobscot County officials were attempting for years to pay the growing county jail costs without raising taxes while they unsuccessfully lobbied the state legislature for additional funding. That strategy resulted in the overspending of millions of dollars, and forced officials in 2025 to raise the county budget to stop depleting reserve accounts.
Human relations, county commissioners, the sheriff’s office, programs and donations, labor relations and transfers to other funds all went over budget, according to the audit. The jail was not cited as being over budget because officials depleted the undesignated fund account to operate it.
There “wasn’t anything we didn’t expect” in the latest audit because it continued trends that emerged from the 2023 report, Penobscot County Finance Director Brenda Palmer said, pointing to the weaknesses with county operations found by auditors.
Auditors found provisions were not put in place for timely bank reconciliations, bookkeeping or document sharing with the finance department, which were also found in the 2023 audit.
The finance department has implemented new systems and procedures that have already helped the county remedy its issues, said Palmer, who guaranteed that the issues will be resolved by the 2027 audit.
Other changes have also been made to pull the county out of its financial crisis.
Monthly budget meetings with department heads are keeping the county under budget so far this year, County Administrator Blair Tinkham said. Department leaders now talk about their spending throughout the year and are more involved with how the budget is created, he said.
Barring an unexpected expense, like an issue with one of the county’s buildings, the new policies will keep the county on budget this year, Tinkham said.
“With the systems that we have in place and the department head meetings, and how the departments are really buying into this process and articulating, I don’t see us having a risk on our operating budget,” Tinkham said.
While the 2025 audit may show that the county slid further into debt, it should be possible for the county to recoup its accounts within a decade, depending on how much revenue is made each year, Tinkham said.
“Our goal now is to be in the black and start building our reserve, and everybody’s bought into that. That’s going to take us five to 10 years, in my opinion, to get back to where we were,” Tinkham said.