As reported earlier, property taxes to support Lincoln County's government tripled between 1998 and 2007, rising from $2.7 to $8.2 million. Big numbers can be difficult to digest, so here are some smaller bites that may be easier to swallow…

$22,000 is a number most taxpayers can grasp. It could be an annual income for a Maine family, the budget for completely remodeling your kitchen and bathroom, the price of a very nice new car, or perhaps the cost of sending a son or daughter to a private college for a year. In this case, however, it's the cost of a single day of county government to the taxpayers of Lincoln County.

Westport Island's Mort Mendes is a Lincoln County taxpayer with very strong feelings about what he sees as the lack of accountability of Lincoln County government. In a recent interview he said, "County government is a totally unnecessary level of government, except for the sheriff's department. The new jail was way too expensive.

"There's a total lack of accountability to the taxpayers," Mendes continued. "They spend all this money and the taxpayers can't do a thing about it. LD-1 has worked to keep town taxes down, why isn't there an LD-1 restraint on county taxes? We raise our hands at town meeting to approve a county budget that we can't change. What would happen if we voted no?"

Susan Baker, a summer resident of Nobleboro, has a different take on the spiraling cost of county government. When she read about the tripling of county taxes in the last 10 years, she said, "Well, if we want the services we get from government, we've got to pay for them."

Mendes is focused on what he sees as the lack of taxpayer control over the high cost of few services, while Baker sees the cost as justified because she is focused on the services themselves. What are the benefits Baker is focused on?

About 75 percent, or $6.1 million of 2007 county expenditures, went to law enforcement activities, including the sheriff's department, 911 call center, county jail expenses, emergency management, Superior and District Courts, and District Attorney. Baker has been the victim of several crimes in her home state of Delaware, and is grateful for the Sheriff's cruisers she sees on Lincoln County roads and the county officers who will take her 911 call and apprehend, try, convict, and incarcerate offenders.

The other 25 percent, or about $2 million of 2007 county expenditures went for oversight of the county by the three county commissioners and their staff, economic development, solid waste management, county buildings maintenance, insurance, and recording of important documents at the Register of Deeds and Register of Probate. Small expenditure items include such things as county treasurer's office, auditing, interest, program grants, photocopiers and advertising and promotion.

Mendes says he is bewildered that it takes $2.1 million to run just the county offices today, while it took only $600,000 more ($2.7 million) to run the entire county government, including law enforcement activities just 10 years ago. He argues that, "Taxpayers don't get a vote on the county budget. The county decides what it wants to spend and then sends us a bill. The county never has to answer to taxpayers. It's a horrible system."

Asked what would happen if a town said "no" to the county's bill for services, Lincoln County Treasurer Don Williams replied that he's "obligated to collect the tax and would have to sell town assets to raise the funds if the town refused to pay."

The only pressure point for taxpayers under the present system is to elect county commissioners who reflect their views, and to make their views known to their district's members of the budget committee.

Today's process, by state law, says that the three elected county commissioners have total control over county spending and taxes. Using an extreme and absurd example, if the three commissioners decide to spend $100 million in 2010, the budget committee can recommend that they not do it, and the taxpayers may reject the budget in the various town meetings around the county, but the bill will be sent to each town and the county treasurer will have to collect it, even if it means selling the town office and all other town assets to satisfy the bill.

So, the question hangs in the air… do Lincoln County taxpayers think they are receiving three times, or $5.5 million, more in benefits from county government than they were 10 years ago? The Commissioners normally meet the first and third Tuesdays of each month starting at 9 a.m. at the courthouse in Wiscasset. The public is welcome.