Maine

Today there are over three thousand counties in the United States with sixteen being in Maine. This unit of local government came to America from England along with many of our other governmental and political traditions.  In England, counties are called shires and, for many years, one of the chief officials in the English shire was the shire-reeve.  In the United States today, that same official is known as the Sheriff.  This is just one example of how our current political names and traditions are linked to our English heritage.

In Maine, as throughout New England, counties have been much slower to grow as regional units of government due chiefly to our early settlement patterns and the early growth of towns and the town meeting form of government. (Outside of New England, counties are much stronger units of local government - often performing most of the functions performed by municipalities here in New England.)  Originally established to provide certain court, jail and road functions, counties in Maine have always performed regional government functions.  They still do as illustrated by the information provided on this Website.  In addition to performing their current regional duties, state law allows counties to partner with municipalities to perform functions that are mutually beneficial to both levels of government.  Lincoln County has taken the lead in doing this with its Recycling & Food Waste Management Program, its County Planner and its County Economic Development Director.

Each county is governed by a Board of County Commissioners who are elected for four year terms on a partisan basis.  Typically, the Chairmanship of the Board is rotated annually. As allowed by state law, some Boards of Commissioners have hired administrators/managers and some County voters have approved charters for their Counties as municipalities often do.

Here in Lincoln County, the Board of Commissioners has adopted the statutory county administrator plan of government. By state law, the Board of Commissioners has the responsibility to prepare an annual Budget for the County, to approve the hiring and termination of employees and to exercise certain other duties as specified in the law.  When the initial Budget is proposed, it is first submitted to the County Budget Committee which reviews it and makes recommendations on it.  (The Budget Committee process varies from county to county as prescribed by state law.)  Once the County Budget is finally adopted, the County sends a tax assessment to each of its municipalities based on the state property valuation of each.  The county assessment is then added to the municipal and school assessments and is included in the annual tax commitment in each municipality within the county - resulting in the property tax bill you receive each year from your municipality.

A Commissioner is elected from each of three Districts within the County.