Sullivan County delegation to vote on $44.4 million budget proposal

The Sullivan County delegation met in Newport to vote on a proposed $44.4 million fiscal 2027 budget after the Executive Finance Committee trimmed $253,700 from the commissioners’ plan. The adopted spending plan becomes the basis for county taxes and for services residents feel when they change, including health care, corrections, administration and other shared county operations.

Sullivan County’s budget process gives the delegation the final say after the commissioners submit a proposal and the Executive Finance Committee reviews it and sends it forward with modifications. The delegation is the county’s legislative body, made up of locally elected state representatives serving county districts, and it votes after the committee completes its recommendations. The committee met on June 11 and June 17, 2026, and the public hearing on the commissioners’ proposed FY27 budget was held June 11 at the State Court House Complex in Newport.

Sullivan County’s fiscal year begins July 1. County officials needed an approved spending plan in place before the new year opened, and the final budget would determine how much tax burden landed on property owners across the county.

In 2025, the delegation met June 27 at the Sullivan County Health Care building in Unity to vote on the county budget, and the proposal would have added about $110 a year in county taxes to a home assessed at $250,000. That same package included eliminating two cooperative extension positions, one corrections position and an additional nursing position.

A year earlier, the delegation approved a $38.7 million budget in a 9-3 vote. That plan carried an estimated county tax increase of about $60 on a $250,000 home.