State Rep. Stephanie Hawke, R-Boothbay Harbor, is sponsoring a bill that would shift the final authority over Lincoln County’s budget from the county commissioners to the county’s budget advisory committee.
L.D. 972, “An Act to Modify the Lincoln County Budget Advisory Committee,” proposes changes to the current budget process.
Chester Rice, a South Bristol selectman and former member of the county budget advisory committee, worked with Bob Foster, of Southport, for more than a year to develop the language for the bill.
“I was on the budget committee for a long time, and the same thing would happen year after year,” Rice said. “The budget advisory committee would do what we could to keep costs down and approve one budget, and then the commissioners would do whatever they wanted and increase it back up again.”
Rice’s most recent three-year term on the budget advisory committee ended in 2016.
If the bill becomes law, it would require the commissioners to submit an estimate of the next fiscal year’s budget no later than 90 days before the end of the current fiscal year. The budget advisory committee would adopt a budget and submit it to the commissioners no later than 45 days before the end of the fiscal year.
The commissioners would have until 15 days before the end of the fiscal year to act on the committee’s budget.
The commissioners would only be able to revise the budget with a unanimous vote. If they did so, the budget would go back to the advisory committee, which could reject the commissioners’ changes with a two-thirds vote of the members present.
The vote would be final, with no further action by the commissioners or the budget advisory committee allowed.
If a budget was not approved before the start of a fiscal year, the county would operate on a budget not to exceed that of the previous year. Currently, the county may operate on an interim budget of no more than 80 percent of the budget from the previous year.
The bill would also change the makeup of the budget advisory committee. Currently, the county is split into three districts and each district has three members on the budget advisory committee. The budget advisory committee also includes a legislative delegate.
Under the current system, not all municipalities have a say in the budget year to year, even though they all pay county taxes, Rice said.
“There are 19 towns in Lincoln County, and only nine of them have representation on the committee,” Rice said. “That should really have been changed.”
The bill proposes that each town may choose to send a representative to be on the committee for a one-year term. A municipality may opt out from having a committee member, as long as it informs the commissioners.
A legislative delegate would still sit on the committee.
Once the language for the bill was completed, Rice and Foster approached Hawke, who agreed to sponsor the bill, Rice said.
Co-sponsors of the bill include most of the county’s legislative delegation: Sen. Dana Dow, R-Waldoboro; Rep. Dick Bradstreet, R-Vassalboro; Rep. Mick Devin, D-Newcastle; Rep. Jeff Hanley, R-Pittston; Rep. Jeff Pierce, R-Dresden; Rep. Deb Sanderson, R-Chelsea, and Rep. Abden Simmons, R-Waldoboro.
Rice said he has spoken to people in “a number of towns” about the bill and has heard mostly support.
“I still have some I’ve got to go to, but mostly people seem to be in favor of it,” Rice said.
Lincoln County Board of Commissioners Chair Mary Trescot said the commissioners believe the current process “works really well” and referred further comment to County Administrator Carrie Kipfer.
Kipfer did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The bill has been referred to the Committee on State and Local Government and is scheduled for a public hearing at 9 a.m., Wednesday, March 29.
