How Penobscot County’s former administrator would fix its budget crisis

By Kasey Turman, Bangor Daily News Staff

Penobscot County commissioners and officials should take additional steps to solve the county’s current budget problems, former County Administrator Scott Adkins said.

Adkins left his role as the Penobscot County administrator this fall after more than a decade in the role, but during his time there he brought forward multiple ideas for how the county can create more cash flow and prevent future shortfalls, he told the Bangor Daily News last week.

The ideas have yet to be implemented, he said.

Penobscot County’s 2026 budget process concluded on Dec. 31 when Commissioners Dave Marshall, Andrew Cushing and Dan Tremble approved a $35.3 million budget.

This year’s budget process revealed issues with how the county jail has been funded and transparency during the process. The jail has been losing roughly $3.5 million a year, Adkins said, creating a $3.5 million shortfall this year. Since 2021, the county has funded the jail’s shortfall through undesignated funds instead of budgeted funds, creating a $7 million crisis.

This year showed that the commissioners, treasurer and administrator need to make changes to the county’s fiscal year, budget committee process and review the budget more often, Adkins said.

The most consequential change would be the county switching to a fiscal year instead of a calendar year, Adkins said.

Penobscot County currently operates on a budget spanning from Jan. 1 to Dec. 31, but many municipalities finalize their budgets on a fiscal year basis that runs from July 1 to June 30. This difference in schedules requires the county to take out a tax anticipation note, a loan that’s repaid with tax money, to be able to operate until towns and cities pay the county tax.

The county doesn’t receive the funds until between August and October, Adkins said.

This year’s budget required the county take out a $23 million loan, Treasurer Glenn Mower said at a county commissioner meeting on Dec. 31. That loan could create more than $1 million in interest, Adkins said.

A switch to a fiscal year would eliminate the need for taking out large loans because the county would have the tax money on hand to spend at the beginning of the year, Adkins said.

The switch would require the county to create an 18-month budget that would cover the six-month difference between the two budget cycles and the next budget year.

Commissioners should plan for this change to be implemented at the end of 2026, Adkins said, so the county can be on a fiscal year schedule by June of 2027, the earliest possible time.

Marshall, Cushing and Tremble have spoken about making this change in multiple meetings, including after the 15-person budget advisory committee submitted a resolution that the county should look into making the change.

Municipalities may be asked to pay all of the 18-month budget up front, Adkins said, but there could also be options for the communities to slowly pay back the six-month portion so they’re not paying a large sum all at once.

Elected officials asked commissioners to look into this change during this year’s budget process, but Adkins said they might not understand exactly how the switch would affect their communities.

“[Municipalites are] going to freak out. Most of them are all in support of switching to a fiscal year, but what they don’t understand is you have to pay up front,” he said.

Based on this year’s budget, communities would be asked to pay roughly $53 million in taxes to cover 18 months of county operations.

Although the change may be a harsh adjustment to begin with, Adkins said it isn’t something that should be delayed or not done even if the state may provide more funding and solve the cash flow issue in a later year.

“You can’t not do it. You can’t sit here and just wait for, you know, a hope and a prayer from the state,” Adkins said.

Discussions surrounding the switch should include officials from local communities, Adkins said.

Previously, the budget had been discussed with the advisory committee, which is made up of elected officials. This year, the committee and municipal officials asked the commissioners to create another committee that includes local finance officials.

The commissioners said in December meetings the committee will be created and will be included in future discussions.

Adkins said collaborations like this are much needed for the county to move forward.

“At the least, you’ll have this group in a collaborative effort with the county to bring [the budget] forth and explain it, and now [they] understand how the county operates,” Adkins said.

Along with county officials, the committee should start holding quarterly reviews of the budget to understand what’s being spent where more precisely, Adkins said.

The reviews wouldn’t be to scrutinize each department but would serve as a way to look through the budget and review county spending before the next year’s budget is presented to the advisory committee in November, Adkins said.

This could avoid having similar budget processes as the one for 2026, which Adkins called “a pivotal year” for the county.

He said 2025 showed that the county can’t move forward without changes, even if the commissioners believe they can get increased funding from the state in the future, Adkins said.