Waldo County’s budget committee decided not to vote on a proposed 36% increase to its 2026 budget Friday night after nearly three hours of public comments opposing the draft.
Members said they did not have enough information about county finances and a state statute governing increases to vote, and hope the delay will push the county’s auditors to complete years of overdue financial audits.
As it stands, the volunteer budget committee said Friday it does not know exactly how much money the county spends or has in its undesignated fund balance to pay for expenses. They likely will not meet again until the new year and don’t plan to vote until audits are completed through 2024, chair Bob Kurek said after Friday’s meeting.
The $17.4 million-plus proposal was met with evidently universal resistance, even among some budget committee members and a commissioner, with select board members and residents from the county’s 26 municipalities turning out to protest the more than $4.6 million increase.
“There’s going to be people losing homes over this kind of thing right here,” Scott Wood said.
Throughout the meeting, comments criticizing the county’s financial practices, budgeting process, communication with the public and lack of audits were met with applause from an overflow crowd in the county’s probate courtroom.
Other Maine counties including Knox, Penobscot and Washington have seen soaring budgets this year and been met with similar resident outcry amid other increasing costs.
In Waldo County, three elected commissioners prepare a budget proposal for the county budget committee, whose nine members are elected by local officials from three districts. The committee has the final vote on budget numbers.
Its self-funded employee health insurance program, information technology costs, boarding contracts for jail inmates, reserve accounts and personnel costs for the sheriff’s department were the major drivers of its increase this year, according to Kurek. The delayed financial audits amid a statewide auditor shortage have also left the committee in the dark about the specifics of county finances.
Altogether, the committee had proposed a more than $17.4 million budget, an increase of more than 36% overall, and more than 55% not including jail costs. Budget committee members had already slashed about half a million dollars from original requests to get there, according to Kurek.
Speakers urged the committee Friday both to drastically cut down those proposed expenses and wait to vote until it had accurate information about its finances. Several asked if the commission and committee were familiar with a state law limiting county assessment increases, Title 706, which they were not.
Committee member Robyn Tarantino of Lincolnville said departments may have overbudgeted in recent years to avoid overspending in the absence of audits.
The county’s recently completed 2021 audit flagged a management concern, Commissioner Kevin Kelley said; the 2022 audit is on track to be returned at the end of the month, and Kelley expects to see that flagged again along with financial concern.
He and commission chair Betty Johnson said after Friday’s meeting that they are particularly worried about the 2023 audit, covering a period when the county had five different finance directors in the course of about a year who used different accounting practices.
Employee benefits alone were set to increase by more than $3 million this year, largely due to the county’s health insurance program. Waldo is the only Maine county to self-insure. Kelley said it began in 2007 and no longer makes financial sense.
Budget committee meeting minutes from late October show that in past years, only health insurance premiums were considered during budget deliberations, not the full cost.
“Never before have all the payments that the County has actually been paying been seen,” the minutes state.
Self-pay insurance means employers collect premiums and pay claims instead of going through an outside provider; the county has been trying to find a carrier to replace its current system, Kelley said, but he expects that will take another year.
This year, seven commercial insurance carriers refused to bid on a contract with the county, Commissioner Timothy Parker said. He also told the room that he felt a vote should wait until audits were completed.
Another substantial increase was in information technology, which would have risen 282% from $229,548 to $878,484. That’s in part due to a move away from using reserve accounts to cover costs, Kurek said.
Corrections costs were a contributor to the budget increase too, due to additional expenses in boarding inmates, inmate medical care and staffing. The county does not have its own jail for long term inmates and contracts those beds elsewhere; its contract with the Somerset County Jail requires expensive opioid treatment shots for inmates, Sheriff Jason Trundy said.
The draft budget posted on the county’s website this week separates jail operations from the rest of its expenses, and shows that those costs are set to decline. But some line items have just been moved to elsewhere in the budget, Kurek said.
After about two hours and 40 minutes of comments, present members of the budget committee agreed not to take a final vote Friday, thanking residents for the turnout and what they called respectful discussion. Members Breanna Pinkham Bebb and Brandy Bridges were absent.
“I don’t see how we can do anything but vote ‘no,’” member Laura Greeley said.
