The Lincoln County Budget Advisory Committee and the Lincoln County Board of Commissioners presented their recommendations for the 2011 budget Nov. 29. The budget, as recommended, will total $10,323,452. Municipal property taxes will pay $9,001,117 of the total figure, a decrease of 0.25 percent from the 2010 budget.
The most expensive line item is the county’s share of the Two Bridges Regional Jail budget, at $2,799,476, a hike of 4.78 percent since last year. The rest of the top five, in descending order, are the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office ($1,877,933), employee benefits ($1,310,686), debt service ($1,011,463) and Lincoln County Communications ($736,233).
Health insurance constitutes the majority of the employee benefits budget at $1,007,965, an increase of $81,356 or 8.78 percent. The Maine Municipal Employees Health Trust is the county’s health insurance provider. “For groups of our size, the increase ranged anywhere from five to 15 percent [this year],” Lincoln County Administrator John O’Connell said.
The debt service line item refers solely to the Two Bridges Regional Jail debt. The total of Lincoln County’s contribution to the jail in 2011 is $3,810,939, or 36.92 percent of the county budget.
The Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office (LCSO) budget dropped 14.95 percent. According to Lincoln County Administrator John O’Connell, the decrease is misleading. Last year, the county included the $360,186 jail transport budget in the LCSO budget. This year, the jail transport budget constitutes a separate line item.
Including the jail transport budget, the LCSO recommendation is $2,238,179, an increase of $30,192 or 1.37 percent.
The following department budget recommendations are significantly higher than last year: the combined budget for the Lincoln County Planning Commission and the Lincoln County Economic Development Office (15.83 percent), the District Attorney’s office (7.99 percent), the Lincoln County Board of Commissioners’ office (7.92 percent) and Lincoln County Communications (6.03 percent).
Mary Ellen Barnes, the Director of the Lincoln County Economic Development Office (LCEDO), said the increase in the planning/LCEDO budget would pay for an additional, part-time staff person in the LCEDO office. Lincoln County Planner Bob Faunce’s office will share in the increase in order to partially replace funding the State Planning Office will no longer provide as a result of state cuts.
Two departments have significantly smaller budgets this year: the Sixth District Court (13.11 percent) and the Lincoln County Registry of Deeds (10.31 percent).
Other changes of note include a $24,258 (30.04 percent) increase in Workers’ Compensation and a $10,985 (10 percent) increase in liability insurance. The workers’ compensation and liability insurance figures are not final, O’Connell said. Final figures will be available “sometime in the next few weeks,” he said.
The county maintains several reserve funds for various purposes. The appropriation for the parking lot project reserve fund will drop to $25,000, a decrease of $125,000 or 83.33 percent. The county still needs to complete the upper parking lot at the courthouse and add an additional coat of pavement to the lower lot, but the bulk of the project is done, O’Connell said.
The recycling program reserve account dropped $25,000 (50 percent) and the 2011 budget entirely eliminates the Lincoln County Emergency Management Agency/Communications reserve account – a savings of $15,000.
Overall, the Lincoln County budget is up $78,239 or .76 percent. The slight hike is offset, however, by an 8.27 percent rise in revenue. The increase in revenue stems from Lincoln County Communications ($39,315 in 2011, no revenue in 2010), the Lincoln County Emergency Management Agency (EMA) (up $34,875 or 48.44 percent) and the county recycling program (up $25,628 or 14.43 percent).
The influx of revenue from Lincoln County Communications is the result of income from four Kennebec County towns that began contracting with Lincoln County for communications services earlier this year. Various grants supply the new EMA revenue.
O’Connell and the members of the Lincoln County Board of Commissioners – Bill Blodgett, Sheridan Bond and Lynne Orne – waived salary increases this year. Other, non-union employees received a 1.75 percent raise, while union employees did or did not receive raises in accordance with each union’s contract.
The Commissioners will vote on the budget at their next regular meeting, Tuesday, Dec. 7. The budget will remain subject to change until Dec. 31. “There will be some final adjustments,” O’Connell said. “For now, [the recommendations are] the budget they’re working with.”
“I’d like to thank the Commissioners for making the extra cuts to help the taxpayers,” committee member George Richardson, Chairman of the Westport Island Board of Selectmen, said.
The Lincoln County Budget Advisory Committee is Chairman Ed Polewarczyk (Wiscasset), Stephen Ham (Boothbay), Chad Hanna (Bristol), Stephen McCormick (Whitefield) and Richardson. The members of the committee are selectmen in their respective towns. Three seats – two in District Two and one in District Three – were vacant this year.
Polewarczyk, Hanna and Richardson were the only committee members present at the Nov. 29 meeting.
