MACHIAS — The Washington County Budget Advisory Committee began work Tuesday on the fiscal 2027 spending plan, expressing frustration that county commissioners forwarded a draft budget without attempting any cuts first.
Committee Chairman Brian Schuth emphasized to members that the budget they received reflects department head requests, not recommendations from county commissioners.
Spending requests total $17.1 million, an increase of $3.7 million, or 27.6 percent, over last year’s final budget.
Without cuts, $15 million of that amount would need to be raised through taxation, $3.4 million more than last year.
Last year, spending rose $1.8 million from 2025, and the amount raised through taxes increased $1.5 million between 2025 and 2026.
In addition to what budget committee members call the budget “book,” the committee received separate memos from Commissioners David Burns and Billy Howard outlining what Schuth described as “wish lists” of cuts they want the committee to consider.
Several of the suggestions were ideas the commissioners had previously raised but never acted on, including purchasing fewer cruisers than the Washington County Sheriff’s Office requested and reducing K‑9 program costs.
Committee Vice Chairman Ben Edwards, who is also vice chairperson of the Machias Select Board, said that when he joined the committee last year, it “opened its work in the worst financial position that certainly I can remember. Cash reserves were gone. A tax anticipation note, or TAN, that grew year over year. Audits years behind. A bond that this committee backed and ultimately the voters turned down, and real ongoing uncertainty throughout the summer and fall about our ability to pay our employees and our bills.”
When the committee finished its work, Edwards said, the budget still increased 17 percent year over year.
“I expect again this year to be one of the least popular people at this table, which I don’t look forward to, but I think it’s the job as I see it, and I intend to do it,” he said.
Edwards added, “It’s worth being clear that the departments of this county got less than what they asked for (last year), and they ran anyway.”
This year, he said, the departments that absorbed those reductions “need to be heard on what (the cuts) cost in coverage and overtime and in people who left, and I think this table is where we all need to hear it.”
Schuth, who also said he did not expect to be very popular, told the committee the work ahead will not be easy but that it must “find a balance between the needs of the department heads and the money needed to meet those needs.”
Others around the table joked about vying for “least popular,” drawing laughter.
Turning serious, Schuth said he was frustrated that, for the second consecutive year, county commissioners have disavowed the draft budget but still sent it forward to the committee, a move he said makes the committee’s job harder.
Schuth noted commissioners had opportunities during their meetings to bring forward all of their suggestions but chose not to raise them.
Committee member Harry “Sonny” Beal Jr. said he believes the Budget Advisory Committee is obliged, despite rising costs, to “put out a budget that actually represents what the county needs.”
Member Crystal Gallina, who is also the finance director in Calais, said county government “is in the unique position of providing a service that nobody needs, until they do. We’re paying for that readiness.”
She added that the “valuation of somebody’s home does not equate to how much that person is able to pay.”
“My goal is to keep that in mind,” Gallina said.
Rep. Tiffany Strout, R-Harrington, said she valued department heads’ input and experience because they “really know how to run their departments.”
She also expressed disappointment that commissioners had criticized department head requests without offering solutions.
“Commissioner Howard suggested the K‑9, but if somebody is missing or lost a K‑9 benefits everyone,” Strout said, adding that the budget should be evaluated with that in mind. “I don’t want to be the one who has to tell somebody that because we cut the RCC (Regional Communications Center) that you don’t get an ambulance.”
Committee member Harry Fish Jr., who is also a selectman in Jonesport, called the budget presented by the commission “unfair” to the Budget Advisory Committee.
“We should have gotten a complete package that this is what the county can live with. Instead, we’ve got a budget from the county and two commissioners saying we want to do this,” he said, which he described as “just handing off the problem to us.”
Schuth suggested the committee begin its work by “tackling public safety first and go from there,” prioritizing spending for the Sheriff’s Office, the Regional Communications Center and the Emergency Management Agency.
The cuts recommended by Howard and Burns after last week’s commission meeting focus heavily on public safety reductions, clashing with what the budget committee has identified as priority spending.
In a memorandum, Howard recommends deep cuts to the Sheriff’s Office, including cutting $550,000 for cruisers and $180,000 to equip those vehicles if the department reduces its on‑duty schedule to three employees instead of four; cutting $35,000 for vehicle maintenance; cutting $10,175 for bulletproof vests, leaving $22,000; cutting $9,000 from criminal investigations, leaving $10,000 in that line; cutting $8,000 from training, leaving $25,000; cutting $2,000 in fitness incentives for officers; and eliminating all K‑9 overtime, expenses and reserve funds.
At the county jail, Howard suggests cutting $10,000 for kitchen supplies, half of that budget; cutting $7,000 from inmate medical expenses, leaving $83,000; and cutting $2,000 for corrections officers’ uniforms and $2,000 for prisoner uniforms.
In all, Howard detailed $1.2 million in cuts, which also include $24,253 in part-time wages at the Probate Court; $20,000 in overtime spending at the Regional Communications Center; $10,000 in part‑time wages at the communications center; and $6,000 — a third of the electricity budget — for electricity at the communications center, bringing the remainder down to $12,000.
The county budgeted $10,515 for electricity at the communications center this year, of which $9,511 has been spent to date.
He also identified $11,000 in savings in the district attorney’s office, including trimming mileage, lodging and computer upgrades and maintenance.
Burns’ suggested cuts focus on the Sheriff’s Office and the communications center and are less severe than those proposed by Howard.
He said he supports buying three cruisers — down from the 11 requested by the sheriff — saving $640,000; cutting gas, oil and vehicle maintenance by $29,500, leaving $175,000 for those costs; cutting $22,000 of the requested $220,000 for overtime and another $10,000 in part-time wages; and trimming lodging costs.
He also suggests that the Sheriff’s Office rotate vehicles within the patrol area to reduce mileage and return one detective to uniform to pick up patrol rotations. He included a directive for the sheriff to “find a way to reduce mileage.”
He also urged trimming $15,000 from the communications center’s full‑time overtime budget, bringing it down to $65,000, and having the center’s deputy director take one shift — or two half‑day shifts — each week to further reduce overtime.
In 2025, overtime at the communications center was budgeted at $50,000, and $63,520 was spent.
This year, the county budgeted $80,000 for overtime, of which $37,119 has been spent so far.
The draft budget’s total spending package, before cuts, stands at $17.1 million. The county anticipates a 13.5 percent increase in revenue — $249,323 more than last year — bringing the amount to be raised through taxation, before cuts, to $15 million.
Several budget committee members said they would like to meet with department heads and tour their departments to better understand operations, as they did last year.
County Manager Renée Gray said tour requests could be made through her office.
Schuth reminded members that if too many of them toured a department at the same time, it could create a quorum, requiring the visit to be treated as an official meeting.
The Budget Advisory Committee’s next meeting is scheduled for 9 a.m. Tuesday, Sept. 22, at 28 Center St., where members are expected to hear presentations from the Sheriff’s Office and the Regional Communications Center before taking action on those requests.
