AUGUSTA — Kennebec County commissioners approved the county’s budget for the next fiscal year during a meeting Tuesday, officially adding 9.6% to a spending total that has ballooned over the past five years.

Much of the hike in the new $25.5 million budget came from wage increases for employees of the Kennebec County Correctional Facility and the Kennebec County Sheriff’s Office, the county’s two biggest departments. The budget committee — made up of town leaders from across the county — debated but decided against slashing overtime funding for those departments in their final meeting last week.

In the fiscal year that ended in June 2022, Kennebec County spent only $14.3 million. Since then, labor costs and unfunded state mandates have caused costs to balloon to the newly approved $25.5 million.

That has meant large jumps county spending funded directly by property tax. Last year, the taxpayer-funded portion of the budget jumped by 28%. The new budget imposes a further 13.5% increase in county taxpayer contribution for the upcoming fiscal year, which starts July 1.

The largest cut made by the budget committee to this year’s initial spending proposal was the $221,500 MD3 program, which sent doctors as first responders to crime and crash scenes.

In 2024, MD3 doctors responded to 211 calls for service in Kennebec County, during which they provided lifesaving care, and spent more than 200 hours educating paramedics and other first responders on techniques and diagnostic strategies. The program was previously funded by federal COVID-19 pandemic grants that have since run dry.

District 1 County Commissioner Patsy Crockett said she was disappointed to see the program go, but understood the fiscal motivations of the budget committee to cut it.

“I hoped that after the citizens realized the benefits from that, that it would save lives, and that was something really important,” Crockett said. “But we do respect what they said — they said that it was worthwhile, too — that it was just too much money.”

Even with the cutting of the MD3 program, though, total spending remained much the same from the draft the Kennebec County Commissioners sent to the committee in February. Over seven budget meetings, the group reduced spending by just $38,810 from the original proposal.

Crockett said the overall alignment between the initial budget suggested by the commissioners and the approved version was the result of in-depth work by the budget committee to understand the needs of the county departments.

“We work with these departments every day,” Crockett said. “For us, it’s a little different story. We know what they need because they tell us every meeting. They tell us every time an issue comes up. The budget committee didn’t have that to work from, and they did sincerely work to learn about the department far more than I have ever seen prior budget committees.”

The commissioners’ approval Tuesday finalized spending for the next fiscal year and requires towns and cities to collect property taxes accordingly.