Androscoggin County commissioners will hold a public hearing at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday at the county courthouse to review a proposed $23.8 million spending package for county government and the jail.

There will be an overview of the proposal followed by public comments before the 2026 plan is finalized. The hearing will be in the second-floor conference room at the courthouse at 2 Turner St. in Auburn.

Of the total, $12.5 million is for county government and $11.3 million is for the jail. After factoring in anticipated revenues of a combined nearly $6.6 million, the proposal stands at $17.2 million to be raised through taxation. It is an increase of $2 million from the current budget, a 13.15% increase.

The draft budget had a 20% increase as a place holder for health insurance costs, but the increase came in at 12% for next year, Administrator Jeff Chute said Friday. He recently learned of the actual insurance increase, which he didn’t have when the county Budget Committee reviewed the budget, he said.

The biggest increase for the jail is an estimated $700,000 to board inmates at other county jails in the state.

Another change is a reclassification of a staff member in the District Attorney’s Office to a domestic violence investigator, Chute said.

Besides contractual obligations for increased labor cost in union contracts, he has added in a 2.5% cost-of-living increase for nonunion employees.

Chute will ask county commissioners to add $40,000 to the budget to hire a consultant to study the feasibility of building a regional jail with Franklin and Oxford counties. He has alerted the chairperson of the Budget Committee to the proposed request.

All three of the county jails are boarding prisoners at other facilities because the jails are overcrowded.

Franklin County commissioners voted in October to pursue hiring a joint consultant in October. Oxford County commissioners tabled action on the request in October for more information. They are expected to take up the matter later in November.

The sheriffs of the three counties put together a proposal to explore a regional jail in September and sent it to commissioners, administrators and others in early October. District Attorney Neil McLean Jr. for all three counties submitted a letter of support for the proposal and a veteran defense lawyer did the same.

Sheriffs are hoping the proposal would save money and expand services for people in custody.