Commissioners to ask Belknap reps for 7.8% increase in county budget for 2026

LACONIA — The county budget proposal is 7.8% higher for next year, and Commissioners Peter Spanos (District 1), Glen Waring (District 2) and Stephen Hodges (District 3) will present it to the county's state representatives next week.

The meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 2, at the Belknap County Complex at 34 County Drive.

According to the meeting notice, the proposed budget includes an increase in total expenses of 7.8%, with 7.6% to be raised by taxes.

Expenses in the 2025 budget totaled $37.6 million, and the 2026 budget proposal includes $40.5 million in total expenses. Proposed operating revenue is up 3.8%, too, from $13.9 million, to $14.4 million. The amount to be raised by taxes would increase 7.6%, from $22.4 million to $24.1 million in the proposed budget.

The meeting is open to the public and will also be streamed live online. A public hearing will be held following the commissioner’s budget presentation, according to the meeting notice.

At the Nov. 24 meeting of the Laconia City Council, Ward 2 Councilor Robert Soucy noted the county budget process would soon begin and, wary of budget increases, encouraged members of the council to attend meetings and pay attention.

“I see a 7.9% increase in the budget,” Soucy said. “That could end up [really] devastating to the City of Laconia. “As you know, we bear most of the county’s expenses, along with all their nonprofit properties. I hope the delegation looks at that. I'm going to try and put some work together as chairman of the finance committee, and build a model of what that 7.9% increase from the county would mean to us."

The county delegation is made up of Belknap's representatives to the Statehouse.

If this year’s process mirrors that of last go around, representatives will hear the commissioner’s presentation, and convene a budget committee over several months. That committee will consult with county department heads and make their own revisions to the budget before presenting another version to the full roster of representatives a few months from now. The group will eventually vote to pass that version, or make revisions of their own.

“Commissioners present to the delegation the budget, and the county commissioners are wishfully thinking and asking for 7-point-whatever-percent,” Ward 5 Councilor Steven Bogert said. “After it's presented to the county delegation, there’s [six] meetings set up with the budget committee. And the budget committee then, at that point in time, goes through, line by line, every line.”

Bogert is also one of those representatives comprising the county's delegation. He represents Laconia as a Republican in Concord.

Last year, funding to outside agencies was a sticking point in the budget process. Considerable debate occurred among representatives and commissioners. Eventually, the resolution was that funds appropriated to some of those agencies were not increased from the previous year, or even reduced.

At the Nov. 17 meeting of the Belknap County Commission, Rick DeMark of the Belknap County Conservation District said a cut to their budget made operations difficult in 2025.

“It’s been asked how we survived 2025 so far. We did it primarily by allocating old grants that had been labeled as ‘restricted’ that we were keeping for rainy days, perhaps, or to revive. We have since unrestricted those and put them into our board administrative account,” Demark said.

Despite those funds totaling somewhere around $35,000, their sole employee has been working a reduced schedule since June, DeMark said. DeMark asked the commission to reconsider their recommendation to fund the organization at $25,000 for 2026. Last year, the district requested $51,700, and received $26,700.

“My own personal opinion is that we’re at the stage where our ability to conduct meaningful business is going to be just about gone, because, without having administrative funds that we can use as match, as leverage to raise other grant funds, we’re pretty much dead in the water,” DeMark said.

“For me personally, and I’m hoping that my fellow commissioners go along with my reasoning here, I think I would be prepared to restore that $51,000 item, and have handouts prepared for the delegation when they convene in January, to review these budget items,” Spanos said.

Waring motioned to increase their recommendation to $60,000 for 2026, and it carried.