Agenda Item Request
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Approve the 2026/2027 Final General Fund, Jail and Cross Insurance Arena budgets.
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Background and Purpose of Request
In November of 2025, the County Manager presented the County Commissioners the General Fund, Jail and Cross Insurance Arena budgets for their review and remanding to the Finance Committee.
As a result of uncertainty with federal revenues at the Jail, the County Manager presented two budgets showing the impacts of no jail federal revenues and how the difference reflects on the tax rate. At the time, the budget with federal revenues was presented at 5.37%, while the budget with no federal revenues was at 13.77%.
The County faced significant impacts to the FY27 budget through increase wages/benefits of recently encumbered union contracts (four of them), utilities, software subscriptions, jail medical and food. The budget includes six months of wages/benefits for a Sheriff's Office training position originally funded in the FY26 budget for six months. No other new staff positions proposed. The budget does not include any new initiatives or bonding for capital.
The County Commissioners remanded the proposed budget to the appointed Finance Committee for further review and guidance. The Finance Committee is slated to meet on December 9, January 6, January 27, 2026 and February 10, 2026. The Finance Committee is made up of town/city elected officials. This year's Finance Committee included:
Bob Vail, Chair Town of Cumberland
Karin Orenstein, Vice Chair Town of Yarmouth
Jon Anderson Town of Scarborough
Ben Grant City of Portland
Sarah Michniewicz City of Portland
Tim Thompson Town of Cape Elizabeth
Connie Justice Town of New Gloucester
The Finance Committee worked through a number of meetings, inviting in County staff for department presentations, providing a lot of questions and challenges along the way. The Finance Committee had much dialog around the understanding and financial impacts of the loss...
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