SKOWHEGAN — Somerset County officials have finalized a 2026-27 budget that comes with an overall 3.5% increase to the portion property taxpayers fund.

The five-member Board of Commissioners unanimously gave the budget its final approval Wednesday. 

The 10-member county Budget Committee, composed of elected and appointed officials from each commissioner district, had approved it following a public hearing Monday. The committee made no changes to the commissioners’ proposal.

County Administrator Tim Curtis called the budget responsible, saying it was the product of a process involving input from many people.

Spending totals approximately $26.42 million, which breaks down to about $12.39 million for the jail and $14.03 million for all other departments. 

Of the $26 million in spending, about $15.52 million will be funded by property taxes: $6.9 million for the jail and approximately $8.62 million for the other county departments. 

Those figures do not include an additional 1% overlay the Board of Commissioners set; including that the total figure heading to taxpayers is $15,678,561.70.

County departments include the divisions of the sheriff’s office other than the jail, emergency management agency, regional communications center, registry of deeds, probate court, and district attorney’s office.

The county departments do not include the services specific to the unorganized territories; those are accounted for through a separate budget sent to the state for approval each fall. It also does not include spending funded by opioid settlements, tax increment financing and community benefit agreements for wind power development.

How the 3.5% increase in the taxpayer-funded portion of the budget will translate to the tax assessment for each municipality varies according to year-to-year changes in individual state-determined property valuations. While nearly all municipalities are set to see an increase in property taxes compared to the current fiscal year, budget documents show assessments for some municipalities — including Athens, Cornville, Embden, Moscow and Solon — will decrease.

The only new position in the budget is an additional detective position in the sheriff’s office, which Sheriff Dale Lancaster said was necessary to address a backlog in cases requiring investigation. 

Other increases come from union contracts for deputies, corrections officers and dispatchers as well as wage increases for clerical staff in the district attorney’s office, which District Attorney Maeghan Maloney requested to improve employee retention.

The budget includes raising $1,262,800 for capital reserves: $640,800 for the general budget and $622,000 for the jail.

Those figures are higher than the initial proposal from Curtis, who, at the beginning of the budget process, came to the commissioners with a package resulting in essentially no taxation increase. The commissioners decided it made more sense to budget more capital now during an otherwise flat budget year.

Some spending increases are offset by new revenue, including state-determined fee increases for the registry of deeds and a new, five-year inmate boarding contract with Waldo County expected to bring in about $1.5 million this year.

The budget includes the use of $935,000 in available undesignated fund balance to offset taxation. The commissioners considered other amounts, both more and less, during their deliberations, and settled on this figure to get to the 3.5% tax increase.

County officials decided against raising the “jail cap,” which remains at $6.9 million in property taxes. State law puts a limit on the amount a Maine county can increase taxes each year for funding its jail. Somerset officials expect to raise the cap in the coming years.