Butler County residents have until Dec. 30 to express their opinions to the county commissioners about the 3-mill property tax increase proposed as part of the 2005 budget.

While the commissioners have been quick to point out why the additional revenue is needed - debt service payments, higher employee benefits spending, Sunnyview Nursing Home equipment upgrades and other line-item increases - they obviously have not done enough in terms of spending cuts throughout the countywide government operation.

The three commissioners' announcement about the plan to increase the real-estate levy to 27.5 mills from 24.5 mills was not accompanied by any information about significant cuts that kept the tax-increase proposal from being higher. Meanwhile, many county residents must be wondering how the commissioners' penchant for recording multimillion-dollar budget balances is being factored into the proposed requirement that they dig deeper into their wallets and pocketbooks at tax time in 2005.

Granted, expenses tied to the new-prison project have been higher than initially envisioned, but county residents have a right to a clear explanation of why they might be asked to pay more next year. What they heard in the presentation of the proposed budget wasn't good enough.

At the same time, the commissioners have ignored the issue of selling the county farm property near Sunnyview Home for housing development - since the commissioners have succumbed to opposition about using the land for everything else that has been proposed, including the jail, mental health facility, juvenile detention home, and even a golf course. The county's premium land prices could bring in a significant chunk of money to the county's coffers, if the land were sold to a developer. Even greater would be the annual tax revenue resulting from homes that would be built on the land.

Apparently the commissioners have again ignored those revenue sources, finding it easier just to impose a higher real estate tax.

There continues to be a significant amount of development in the county - a rate of development that many other counties would regard as much more than enough to make ends meet - but the current county government has chosen not to do enough to balance spending with the available no-tax-increase revenue. Simply pointing out that all requests for additional employees in the various county departments had been denied is not enough. Some other counties have found ways to reduce their employee rolls

It would have been more comforting to county property owners if the commissioners had imposed a specific-percentage budget cut within each department as a means for financing the additional revenue needs.

If the jail project is going to be a crutch to support the need for a tax increase this year or in subsequent years, the commissioners can be faulted for poor planning and judgment about the project's money needs when the county's latest bond issue was approved.

This country has in recent years experienced record-low interest rates, and many homeowners doled out money to refinance their homes to decrease their monthly mortgage burden. Now, those people who have refinanced and whose mortgage payments are adjusted annually as a result of their tax and insurance escrows will, thanks to the county, see their monthly payments move closer to what they had been paying prior to the refinancing.

Meanwhile, people who live on low fixed incomes are being challenged to a greater degree by the commissioners' failure to hold the line on spending.

The commissioners have offered no apologies for any of that.

County taxpayers were handed a 4-mill property tax increase in 2001 and a 3-mill increase in 2002. Now they are facing their third increase in five years.

It's time for county taxpayers to be more vocal about how higher county taxes will impact their lives - before the commissioners' final 2005 budget action. The commissioners have become too fixated on higher budget and tax numbers without mandating that county operations feel any significant degree of cost-saving pain to keep spending in line.