Restorative justice next on county budget chopping block

LACONIA — Members of the county delegation's Budget Review Committee are considering cuts to the county restorative justice program, part of their continued march through the finances of county departments, during their meeting on Monday afternoon at the Belknap County Complex. 

At the meeting, committee members reviewed the budgets of restorative justice, the county attorney’s office, the sheriff’s department and the office of the register of deeds, seeking to cut back in anticipation of large-scale slashes at the state level amid a looming economic recession.

Delegation Chair State Rep. Harry Bean (R-Gilford) reiterated to the department heads the message he’s proffered to each who’ve come before them: we’re cutting $1 billion from the state budget and we need to cut the county’s, too. 

“I’d like to say the same thing I said to the other department heads,” Bean said. “I’m on the Finance Committee in Concord and we’ve been tasked with reducing the budget for the state by $1 billion, which is 8%. The overall budget increase here was expected to be about 12%, if I remember right, and there’s a lot of space between a -8 and a positive 12.”

Bean said he’d like department heads to help the delegation reduce their budgets. 

“Anything that the department heads can do to help us find places in their budgets to cut, it would be a lot better for you to tell us where you want to cut your budgets than for us to, because we don’t know as much about your department as you do,” he said. 

“Just to make sure you’re talking apples to apples ... our expenditures, what you’re reviewing now, is a 5% increase as presented to you,” County Administrator Debra Shackett said. “It’s the amount to be raised by taxes is an 11.9% increase. I don’t know how that equates to the state budget at all.”

In December, when the committee — which includes Bean, Reps. Steven Bogert (R-Laconia), Juliet Harvey-Bolia (R-Tilton), Mike Bordes (R-Laconia), Lisa Freeman (R-Tilton), Matthew Lunney (R-Meredith) and Charlie St. Clair (D-Laconia) — met for the first time at the county complex, County commissioners Peter Spanos, Glen Waring and Stephen Hodges presented a moderately increased budget for 2025 which included a slight downturn in revenues, apparently due to issues with retaining staff at the county nursing home. The nursing home cannot be operated at full capacity unless additional staff are hired. 

Outlined in the budget proposal, county expenditures are up 5.3% over last year at $38.17 million, a difference of about $1.7 million. Revenues decreased about 3.9% at $14.5 million. A house assessed at $300,000 would pay an increase of about $36 in county taxes, according to the proposal. The amount to be raised by taxes is increased 11.9% at $23.7 million, but that figure could change if the delegation is successful in cutting departmental budgets.

The most significant proposed cuts on Monday afternoon included two full-time positions within the county’s restorative justice program, led by Executive Director Mike MacFadzen. 

The caseload on their employees is high, MacFadzen said, and turning two part-time employees into full-time would alleviate some of the problem. Committee members instead elected to eliminate those proposed positions, instead allocating funds for another part-time employee, saving the county on wages and benefits but hopefully providing enough working hours to manage caseloads. 

Laura LaPointe, the county’s newly-elected register of deeds, sat before the committee, all of whom were present and did not cut that department’s budget. The registry of deeds is one county departments which earns revenue. They’re responsible for the housing and maintenance of all county documents. 

The sheriff’s department made out with only minor cuts and line-item adjustments, reducing its expenditures from an 8% to 7% increase over last year.

And County Attorney Keith Cormier, elected in the fall after serving in an interim capacity since May in the position vacated by Andrew Livernois’ confirmation to the Superior Court bench, told members of the committee his office extended an offer to a new attorney who would not be arriving to work until the summer, saving his budget months of payroll expenditures. 

At present, there would be six attorneys, three support staff and two victim witness advocates if the office was fully-staffed. 

The next budget review committee meeting is scheduled for 2 p.m. on Monday, Jan. 20, at the county complex.