Belknap County panel finalizes budget recommendations, forwards cuts and level-funding to full delegation

Belknap County officials agreed on a set of budget recommendations to send to the full county delegation, including cuts to several outside agencies, a temporary removal of a $30,000 maintenance garage line item and a decision to present the restorative-justice program at its 2024 actual-expenditure level rather than at the director’s requested increase.

The recommendation package, presented by the county’s review group after multi-hour discussion, will go to the full delegation for consideration at a noticed meeting set for March 12 at 6 p.m. The panel’s draft shows county spending up modestly and county property tax rates rising by a few cents per $1,000 of assessed value; commissioners described the increase to the tax rate in the discussion as roughly six cents per $1,000 compared with last year’s rate (from $0.99 to about $1.05 per $1,000, as stated in the meeting).

Why it matters: the review committee framed the package as an attempt to keep county operations — nursing home services, public safety staffing and facility maintenance — functional while trimming discretionary outside-agency support. Several commissioners said the choices were difficult and warned the recommendations might face pushback at the…