Commissioners Hold Off Decision on Staff Cuts Until After Election Day 

Paul Sylvain 

A bone-chilling wind failed to deter media and some hearty county citizens from attending an outdoor press conference on the steps of the Washington County Courthouse on Oct. 23. 

It was spearheaded by county commissioners who say the need to pass an $11 million county bond referendum, which the board has pledged to cap at $8 million, could not be more urgent as voters head to the polls Nov. 4. The funds would be used to repay the county’s 2025 tax anticipation note (TAN) and related interest by year’s end, which they had previously stated was not due until February. 

The press conference also provided a platform for a show of unity in support of the bond by the commissioners, the Budget Advisory Committee (BAC), two members of the county’s Legislative Delegation, and county department heads and employees.

On one hand, much of what was presented by Commissioners David Burns and Courtney Hammond, along with BAC Chair and Vice Chair Brian Schuth and Ben Edwards, and State Sen. Marianne Moore (R-Calais), had been stated and restated multiple times before. However, some of the questions and statements posed by attendees reflected a total lack of even basic knowledge about what led to the county’s fiscal crisis despite widespread coverage. 

One person persisted in an apples-and-oranges comparison of the county’s 125 employees with fewer employees in a lengthy list of other counties. When it was pointed out that some of those counties that were cited enjoy a state police presence, which ceased in Washington County more than two years ago, another person snapped back, “Then why doesn’t the county go get some state troopers?” 

He was quickly schooled on the legislative delegation’s efforts to restore that presence after State Police unceremoniously pulled out of Washington and other rural counties in Maine in July 2023. The citizen was told that a bill to hire four troopers specifically for Washington County passed the Legislature earlier this year, but that the bill remains stalled with the Appropriations Committee, where it is expected to die.

The same citizen was reminded that few Washington County communities maintain their own municipal police departments. Without such police departments, and in the absence of the State Police, it falls on the Sheriff’s Office to patrol one of the state's largest counties. It was also noted that several of the counties mentioned do not operate county jails, which not only require proper staffing but must also provide costly state-mandated services. 

Exchanges like that prompted a frustrated Commissioner Hammond to remark at a brief work session following the press conference, “I wish more people would read the newspaper.”

Budget Advisory Committee Vice Chair Ben Edwards cleared up a statement made at a public hearing the previous week, when County Commissioner Chairman David Burns said he’d recently learned from Machias Savings Bank that the county had until Feb. 15, 2026, and not Dec. 31, 2025, to repay the county’s $7.6 million TAN plus roughly $300,000 in interest for this fiscal year.

“There’s been some confusion about the due date on the TAN,” said Edwards. “The note from the bank is technically due mid-February [which would be one year since the TAN was taken out]. However, under state law, the county is required to retire the TAN in the same fiscal year it was issued. This means it must be fully satisfied by Dec. 31. That deadline cannot be extended.” 

The county’s fiscal year begins Jan. 1 and ends on Dec. 31.

Edwards began by saying if the bond failed at the polls, the only option currently available to the county “would be to add the full $8 million needed to pay off the TAN directly to next year’s TAN commitment.” Said Edwards, “To put this in very simple terms, we either pass the bond now, and give the municipalities the flexibility to pay off the debt in a way that works best for them and for their taxpayers, or we don’t pass the bond and every municipality will face the whole weight of the $8 million payoff in a single year.”

Slowly, it appears that the selectboards in a growing number of the county’s communities have indicated that, while they don’t like the situation, they are nevertheless supporting the bond and urging their community’s residents to vote “yes.”

Jonesport’s selectboard issued a public statement last week on Facebook in support of the bond. While the Machias Selectboard has not issued a public statement on the bond, the board’s members seemed resigned to supporting it. 

To Edwards’s point at the press conference, the Machias Selectboard, backed by its financial director, indicated at the board’s Oct. 22 meeting that the town appears to have the funds needed to pay off its estimated $314,152.41 share of the TAN in a lump sum, if the bond passes. Paying it in full up-front would save the town’s taxpayers additional interest costs.

Edwards told the press conference crowd, “If we default, we would still owe the same $8 million, but most likely at a much higher court-ordered interest rate. More importantly,” said Edwards, “the county depends on borrowed money through a tax anticipation note to operate for about nine months every year. If we default now and damage our credit, not only would our interest rate on the existing TAN be much higher, but the rate for next year’s TAN — if we could even obtain one — would be most certainly much higher. So defaulting won’t make the debt disappear. It would just make it more expensive every single year moving forward.”

Edwards said the BAC understands how difficult any tax increase will be. “Everyone has been hit with higher costs in recent years, from property evaluations to fuel to utilities,” said Edwards. “None of us here takes this lightly. That said, I think it’s very important to put this into perspective.”

He explained that, on average, the county portion of each property tax bill amounts to roughly 10% of the total tax bill. “That varies from municipality to municipality,” Edwards said, “but that’s about the average. So if your tax bill [last year] was $1,000, about $100 of that would go to the county. A 40% increase in the county portion would mean roughly $40 more per year, and of that, about $10 would represent the bond we’re discussing today. So, for an average $1,000 tax bill in Washington County, the bond would mean roughly a $10 increase on your tax bill. Of course, it will vary by municipality.” 

Edwards went on to say that he has developed an online calculator that should go live on the county’s website sometime this week. “You’ll be able to select your municipality, enter your total tax bill from last year, and see an estimate of both the county increase and the portion related to the bond,” Edwards said.

BAC Chairman Schuth predicted, “If the bond does not pass, the committee’s ability to continue to do their work on the budget will be severely compromised. The budget process has already identified over $600,000 in reduced expenses, and we have plenty more work to do.”

If the bond fails next week, Schuth warned, “The county is going to face the unprecedented prospect of running out of money unless another mechanism can be found to pay the $8 million debt. This could have a devastating effect on public safety, as almost three-quarters of the county’s expenses go to maintain 9-1-1 dispatch, sheriffs' patrol, the jail, and emergency management. The committee regrets the need for the bond, but cannot see any other responsible solution.”

Sen. Marianne Moore (R-Calais) agreed, saying, “We do not want to lose our central services. We talk about Plan B, but if the bond does not pass, we will have to take a look at our services. There are certain things that we have to provide, but I don’t know how we’re going to pay for it. We can’t just shut down the jail and send the inmates home. It doesn’t work that way. We’re going to have to pass that bond. We’re going to have to pay it if the bond passes or not.”

Asked where the roughly $6 million the county received in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) of 2021 money went, County Commissioner Hammond replied, “There was a cash flow issue, because of the balance for accounting errors that took place from 2020 to 2024. That cash flow shortage was actually covered over by a portion of the ARPA money that has been put into the general operating account. It wasn’t until the invoices were paid for the [new] Sheriffs Office building and the District Attorney’s building and a couple of other projects, that the cash flow issue came to light.”

He further explained, “When the commissioners and the budget advisory committee found out about the shortfall in 2024, they were starting to work on the 2025 budget. There was a knee-jerk reaction to try to cut the budget to the bone, and they went so far as to cut things that they were contractually obligated to pay.”

Said Hammond, “There were no reserves at all. Zero. There was no money in the liability insurance line; paid family medical leave was not fully funded. And the list went on and on and on when we started to dig. And it was a tremendous short fall in the 2025 budget because of what they did.” He added that union-negotiated pay raises of eight and 10% each year for three years, which were agreed to by the former county commissioners in 2024, further deepened the hole.

The commissioners appear to be preparing for expected staffing cuts either way. They opened a post-press conference work session with an executive session with County Manager Renee Grey, the only other person remaining behind closed doors.

Immediately after returning to open session some 20 minutes later, Chairman Burns told a meeting room packed with county employees, “There is not going to be any action taken as a result of our executive session. We’re going to hold off on any decisions until after the Nov. 4 vote. That gives us a little bit more breathing room before we make any tough decisions.”