Penobscot County is facing a nearly $3.5 million budget gap to cover the jail’s soaring expenses — a cost likely to be passed on to residents unless municipalities can find a way to slash their own budgets.

Penobscot County Commissioners have for years held out hope for more state funding for the jail, which has seen its revenue deficit grow from about $1 million in 2021 to $3 million in 2024. That deficit reached $3.4 million in 2025.

Without that state funding, Penobscot County must now fix the jail budget gap itself. To do so, the county will need to raise the amount of taxes it collects from municipalities by 14%, commissioner Andre Cushing told leaders from more than a dozen communities at a Sept. 25 meeting. That number could change based on other county departments’ budgets, which

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