County Manager Jim Geely told the Cumberland County finance committee that the county’s proposed fiscal plan hinges on federal inmate revenue and rising personnel costs as he gave a 30,000‑foot overview of the coming budget. "We're proposing a 3% nonunion COLA," Geely said, and he warned that health insurance and workers' compensation costs have climbed substantially.

Geely outlined the budget’s most consequential figures: an anticipated 3% cost‑of‑living adjustment for nonunion staff; health insurance projected to rise about 12% through the Maine Municipal Employees Health Trust; a large increase in workers' compensation partly tied to jail injuries; and roughly $1.5 million in new money needed to fund recent union contract increases across four bargaining units. He described a package of roughly $317,000 in non‑debt capital spending and a proposed $200,000 draw from the county’s tax‑stabilization reserve to moderate the tax rate.

The presentation emphasized the budget’s sensitivity to federal contract revenues used to house federal inmates. Geely said the budget currently counts more than $3 million in federal revenue from the US Marshals Service and related federal agencies. "That adds up," he said, noting the contract pays about $150 per day per inmate. With that federal revenue included, Geely said the combined county budgets would show a tax increase of about 5.37%; without the federal revenue the increase would be 13.77%.

Committee members pressed staff about the stability of that federal funding. Geely said the commissioners voted 3–2 in November to maintain the contract, but he warned that recent legislation could affect agreements. "There is a bill sitting on Governor Mills' desk" that could change how local governments contract with federal immigration enforcement, he said, and another proposal by Rachel Talbot Ross was on the short session with only a title available at the time of the meeting. Geely cautioned that changes in Augusta could play out over six months to a year and materially affect the budget.

The meeting also highlighted operational pressures that increase costs: rising IT software subscription renewals, jail food and medical contract increases, and reliance on outside law‑enforcement departments for hospital details. Geely said the county currently budgets $200,000 to cover outside law‑enforcement details for inmates requiring hospital escorts and expects to reduce that cost if staffing improves.

On the risk from contract adjustments, Geely said jail administration had advised that asking the US Marshals Service to amend its contract to exclude ICE detainees could prompt the Marshals to withdraw the entire contract and remove Marshals prisoners from the jail — posing an "all‑or‑nothing" choice. He also recalled a prior loss of federal inmates about two and a half years ago that required the county to unfund approximately 42 jail positions; only nine of those had been restored.

Geely closed by identifying departments the committee might invite for deeper review in subsequent meetings — the sheriff's office, district attorney's office, communications/dispatch, EMA, registry of deeds and IT — and said staff would bring an enterprise and grant budget for the committee’s next session.

Next procedural steps: staff will provide more granular budget documents and schedule department presentations in follow‑up meetings; no formal votes on the budget were taken at this session.