Barnstable County department heads present FY2026 "level services" budgets; focus on regional IT services, human services grants, child advocacy and lab growth

Barnstable County department directors gave delegates a high-level review of their FY2026 budget requests on March 5, describing largely “level services” submissions while flagging specific priorities for committee review.

Billy Traverse, county IT director, told the assembly the department presented a request reflecting a roughly 5% budget increase driven mostly by fixed costs and cloud licensing. Traverse said the county’s IT operation also provides regional services to towns, invoicing about $500,000 in recent years, and recommended a regional-services assessment (possibly with grant support) to make the program sustainable. He also flagged cybersecurity and AI governance as priorities and said the department has begun small pilots to manage AI usage and data-security needs.

Joe Pacheco, director of Human Services, summarized nine programmatic areas (behavioral health, aging/wellness, SHINE Medicare counseling, substance-use prevention,…