The three current commissioners of Franklin County will meet on August 22nd at 10 a.m. at the Superior Court in downtown Farmington. They will make a major decision. Will they abide by the 2024 budget they passed and raised funds for or will they refuse to allocate some of those funds as authorized to seven regional nonprofits?
The complexity of this decision deserves an explanation. The Franklin County budget is drafted by the county commissioners and then handed over to a budget committee of nine select persons representing towns in Franklin County. These towns provide funds from our taxes to the commissioners to enable them to implement the county budget.
Currently the law allows the county budget committee to amend the budget as proposed by the county commissioners. After a public hearing the budget committee votes on their amended budget, and if the proposed changes are not objected to by a unanimous vote of the three
commissioners, the budget is then adopted. The towns contribute funds from their tax revenue, which the commissioners are obligated to spend according to the adopted budget.
The law further states, “The county commissioners may not further increase, decrease, alter, or revise the budget adopted by the advisory committee.”
In 2017, in 2018, and apparently again this year something appears to be happening that contradicts this wording. The budget committee disagreed with commissioners regarding support of community economic and development programming as provided by numerous non-profit organizations. The budget, as proposed by the budget committee with funding for these non-profits, passed. The towns contributed their tax funds. The non-profits did the work requested of them. But then two of the three commissioners refused to sign the warrant authorizing payment to the non-profits for work already completed. Three nonprofits are currently owed $58,000 by the county for work done in 2017 and 2018, funds that the commissioners have refused to pay.
This year the budget committee voted to provide seven non-profit organizations with $150,000 more than the commissioners recommended. The budget has been passed and the towns have contributed their tax funds based on this budget. In last week’s meeting, the commissioners delayed signing the warrant addressing the county-wide services in order to have those services broken out into separate warrants, which are expected to be voted on in the next meeting on August 22nd. Will the commissioners again refuse to expend the allocated funds? How much will these nonprofits be owed for 2023 after the commissioners are done with their vote on August 22nd?
Democracy is important. When elected leaders find loopholes in laws and abuse the intent of legislation, all citizens should be skeptical of our institutions, our leaders, and the process. It is important that we protect democracy and our institutions from this erosion.
Please consider coming to this public meeting on August 22nd and seeing first-hand what the commissioners decide and why they decide it. Your opinion matters.
Fen Fowler, Farmington Maine
John Rosenwald, Farmington Maine
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