Washington County passes budget

MACHIAS – Washington County commissioners have approved a $4.59 million budget for 2002, but what that will mean for county taxpayers won’t be clear for several months.

Commissioner John Crowley said the commissioners would not determine how much of the county’s surplus would be applied to reduce taxation until the completion of the 2001 audit.

Surplus funds are the result of revenues that come in higher than anticipated or expenses that come in under budget. Crowley said the audit to determine what those figures are for 2001 would begin after the books close at the end of January.

The audit will be completed before the commissioners determine the 2002 tax levy and send the tax bills to county municipalities, he said.

If no surplus funds were applied to the 2002 budget, the amount to be raised by taxation would be $3,509,476. That is a 12.5 percent increase or $390,884 more than 2001 county taxes.

But Crowley said this week that he expects the tax increase will be closer to 7 percent.

The commissioners completed the expense side of the budget on Dec. 13 after a special meeting with the county budget committee.

During that meeting, which took place the morning of the day commissioners approved the 2002 budget, the budget committee reduced the budget they had recommended on Nov. 13 by $177,543.

Crowley said the commissioners and the budget committee agreed that there had to be a limit to the budget increases of recent years and that they had “drawn a line in the sand.”

The committee’s cuts included a $141,720 addition to the $150,000 capital reserve for a new county office building and the $24,395 they had budgeted for a fifth patrol deputy for the Washington County Sheriff’s Department.

The budget committee also decreased the full-time salary account in the Washington County Jail by $5,928 to reflect the fact that two longer-term employees had left and were being replaced by new hires who will receive entry-level pay.

The committee also cut a total of $5,500 from the amount of county money budgeted for four organizations – Eastern Maine Development Corp., Downeast Hospice, the Washington County Council of Governments and Neighbors Against Drug Abuse.

Some of the reductions were offset by additions to the budget, including an additional $15,000 for the $375,000 budgeted for health insurance for the union employees who work in the county jail, the regional communications center and the Sheriff’s Department and an additional $5,400 for Washington County Extension.

Crowley said Extension requested the additional money because the floor in its building collapsed from the weight of its office and the landlord, who is repairing the structure, is increasing the rent.

The commissioner said the adjustment in the amount budgeted for union health insurance is the result of an increase that was announced after the Nov. 13 meeting of the budget committee. The county is in the midst of contract negotiations with the union, and money was placed in the budget to reflect that fact that the contract – including the county’s share of the cost of health insurance – is under negotiation, he said.

Other additions to the budget include: a $936 salary adjustment in the District Attorney’s Office that was not calculated in the previous budget and $200 in supplies for county’s archive project. The county is preserving its archive of old newspapers, believed to be the most comprehensive collection in the state.

The budget committee also reduced the amount budgeted for interest income in the revenue portion of the county budget by $25,000 to reflect current low interest rates.

The final budget – as approved by the commissioners on Dec. 13 – is $4,596,597, which includes a $100,000 contingency account.

Total revenues – with the exception of the surplus funds the commissioners will add later – are budgeted at $1,086,121.