A Pittsburgh radio station celebrated "Christmas in July" on Monday, adding holiday music to its regular oldies format and giving away gifts to certain callers. The hot, humid weather in Western Pennsylvania that day bore no resemblance to the snowy scenes depicted in the music, but that didn't seem to matter to anyone.

The radio station's observance reminded listeners that only five months remained until the real Christmas holiday would arrive. What the radio station didn't say was that, between now and then, municipalities and county governments will focus increasingly on money needs for 2006 as they work to prepare a budget for the new year - without Santa's help.

Part of the budget exercise is to set a property tax millage rate to ensure that government is able to operate in the black.

For property owners, Butler County's budget has been becoming a source of growing concern. The county commissioners increased the real-estate tax 3 mills for 2005, bringing the total to 27.5 mills. In 2002, the county raised taxes 3 mills and, in 2001, there was a 4-mill increase.

Presumably, more tax increases lie ahead as a result of the upcoming construction of a new county prison - a project already more than $9 million over its initial $30 million estimate, despite no official groundbreaking date having yet been announced.

The new prison, by being designated for construction as a multi-level facility in Downtown Butler, will result in what is expected to be millions of dollars in extra costs over what would have been necessary if the commissioners had opted instead to build a horizontal, one-story prison on county-owned land known as the Sunnyview Farm. The county owns 135.76 acres across from Sunnyview Home, but chose to buy land downtown for approximately $500,000.

Because of the new prison's proposed location, the county incurred the obligation to spend more than $514,000 for Sprint to relocate a trunk line. In addition, money spent for renovations to the courthouse annex along South Washington Street will be relegated to money-not-well-spent when that building is razed to make way for the new prison.

If the new prison had been built at Sunnyview, the prison annex property could have been converted into additional county office space - or been cleared for construction of additional, new county office space in close proximity to the main courthouse and county Government Center.

Troubling, amid all of this, is the commissioners' apparent lack of interest in obtaining any significant income from the Sunnyview land.

From the 135.76 acres across from Sunnyview Home, plus an additional 31.7 acres the county owns on the same side of the road as the home, the county is earning a "whopping" $1,440 a year - all from a Jefferson Township man who is leasing 96 of those acres at $15 an acre for farming purposes. A number of other acres are under no-charge agreements for private gardens.

While increasing the property-tax bills of county residents, the commissioners have continued to cave in to opposition about possible reasonable uses for the land - for the prison, a juvenile detention center, a mental health facility and even a golf course - and have made no moves to try to sell the property for residential development.

Residential development would provide a steady stream of property tax revenue to county, municipal and school district coffers, in addition to the money that would be obtained from the sale of the land.

Instead, the commissioners seem indefinitely content with $1,440 that will do virtually nothing in terms of easing the impact of the additional prison costs on taxpayers as well as possible negative financial impacts on other county programs.

The Pittsburgh radio station's "Christmas in July" celebration this week gave listeners thoughts of cooler, more comfortable temperatures. But if, between now and December, Butler County's commissioners don't get a financial handle on the prison project and other expenses, keep the tax rate under control and strive to raise additional money wherever possible, taxpayers' blood-pressure numbers at budget time might be reminiscent of the high, uncomfortable temperatures of the past few days.