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Barnstable County registry of deeds projects higher revenue in FY25 and requests level-funded FY26 budget
Summary
Registry officials told commissioners they are seeking a modest 4% budget increase—driven by personnel costs—after reporting stronger-than-expected revenue this fiscal year despite 40-year low transaction volumes.
Jack Mead, registrar of Deeds for Barnstable County, and David Murphy, assistant registrar of Deeds, told commissioners the registry is seeking about a 4% increase in its FY26 operating request, nearly all attributable to step increases, cost-of-living adjustments and a 12% health-insurance increase.
“We try to be as level funded as possible,” Mead said. He added that roughly 94% of the registry's budget is personnel costs and that staffing levels remain “about as low from a staffing perspective as we can be.”
On revenue, the registry described a mixed picture: transaction volume remains at a roughly 40-year low, but market values have risen, producing stronger receipts so far in FY25. Mead reported the office is roughly 16.7% ahead of last year's revenue pace and that FY24 combined excise and business revenue totaled about $15.7 million, which exceeded budget estimates by roughly $700,000 to $800,000.
The registry said it relies on a statutory registrars' technological fund for IT and imaging projects and continues to use those dedicated funds to upgrade equipment and complete back-indexing and imaging work. Mead called that statutory fund an important revenue source and warned that if the legislature lets that fund lapse it would create difficulties for registries statewide.
Mead said the registry's FY26 revenue recommendation was developed with county finance staff and is conservative: "even with a 10% correction, we're comfortable that we can meet our revenue estimates for 2026 with the number that's been put forward." He cited the market's sensitivity to interest rates and the risk of a price correction as the primary downside risk.
Ending: Commissioners asked follow-up questions about capital spending and the state budget outlook; registry officials said they had no inside information on state budget developments beyond what they read publicly.
