Maine county leaders’ hope that the Maine Legislature would provide extra jail funding were dashed this session, but they also expressed appreciation that current funding wasn’t cut.

“While we appreciate that funding did not decrease, flat funding continues to present significant challenges for county jails,” Franklin County Sheriff Scott Nichols Sr. said.

For the third straight year, the Legislature, which adjourned earlier this week, appropriated $4 million more for jail operations than their $20.3 million baseline funding.

However, county leaders had pushed for a total of nearly $30 million amid rising costs related to overcrowding and other longstanding issues. Those leaders said the flat-funding this year is putting the burden on local taxpayers residents, many of whom are also facing higher municipal and school budgets.

The $4 million, appropriated through a late amendment to L.D. 2232, will come from unappropriated funds available at the end of the fiscal year, according to Sen. Margaret Rotundo, D-Lewiston, Senate chair of the Legislature’s Appropriations and Financial Affairs Committee.

It’s the same $4 million that was added in the 2024 supplemental budget and the last bienniel budget, both times to fund medically assisted treatment for substance use disorder.

Tim Curtis, the administrator for Somerset County, said it’s frustrating to have to fight for more county funding year after year.

Originally, LD 2232 was passed by the House and Senate with language that would have raised the amount of county jail funding in statute to about $30 million, rising each year along with the Consumer Price Index. Instead, it was replaced with the amendment providing $4 million as one-time funding.

County leaders will bring the issue back before the Legislature, and a new governor, next year, Curtis said.

Other county officials agreed.

Without meaningful increases that keep pace with rising costs, counties are left to absorb the burden locally, which ultimately impacts county officials’ ability to invest in programs and strategies that improve long-term outcomes for both individuals and public safety, Franklin County’s Nichols said.

“At a time when we are working to reduce recidivism — particularly by addressing substance use disorders and expanding alternatives to incarceration — resources are more critical than ever,” he said.

The state’s continued underfunding of county jails has shifted an unsustainable financial burden onto local property taxpayers, said Christopher Wainwright, Oxford County sheriff.

“In Oxford County, where residents are already struggling with rising property taxes, this cost‑shifting only deepens the strain on families and local budgets,” he said. “Without adequate state support, communities are being forced to shoulder expenses that were never meant to fall so heavily on them.”

The state is not paying its fair share of jail funding, said Eric Samson, Androscoggin County sheriff.

“The financial burden is put on the property taxpayers’ back or (will force a) reduction in services needed, if not mandated, in the county jail system,” Samson said.

Yet Samson expressed appreciation for the continued extra $4 million.

“We are fortunate that we received the funding. Even if flat-funded, it will allow us some ability to maintain the level of services we currently provide to the inmate population in hopes of addressing substance misuses, mental health related issues and programs designed to assist in reducing recidivism.”

County officials have to keep pushing for reform at the state level, Samson added. “I’m optimistic this can pass in the future, as the property taxpayers deserve the relief.”

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