Article: Hancock County approves '04 budget Drug task force officers named at meeting

ELLSWORTH - Hancock County commissioners on Wednesday approved a $6,717,000 budget for the 2004 fiscal year, according to the county clerk.

The budget includes $4,715,000 that will be raised in taxes, marking an 8.73 percent increase over the county taxes raised this year, Hancock County Clerk Ray Bickford said Thursday. The county raised $4,336,400 in taxes in 2003.

Bickford said most of the increase can be attributed to $200,000 county officials approved for an anti-drug task force, the first county-funded law enforcement team in Maine dedicated to fighting illegal drug activity. If the task force had not been approved, the increase would have been about half as much, he said.

"Without it, ...

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