The Butler County commissioners' borrowing and investing decisions tied to the new prison and other projects were discussed again on Tuesday at a county prison board meeting.

As he has indicated in the past, county Controller Jack McMillin said the county's borrowing decisions in connection with a $50 million bond issue in 2003 were not in the best interests of the county's coffers. Meanwhile, he is sticking by his earlier belief that the commissioners' stated estimates regarding the total cost of the prison project are millions of dollars lower than what the project actually will cost.

McMillin estimates that the new prison will cost about $40 million; the commissioners' latest estimate is $36 million.

Of the $50 million bond issue, $30 million was originally designated for the new prison.

If the controller is right and the commissioners are wrong, and the commissioners can't scrape up the funds to make up the shortfall, that burden will fall on the shoulders of those who pay the county's real estate tax, which has been going up in recent years.

Although the tax remained unchanged for 2006, the commissioners, at the time of 2006 budget-preparation work, said a tax increase was likely in 2007.

At Tuesday's meeting, McMillin said the county lost $300,000 annually, or about $1 million total, in investment earnings because of its decisions tied to the bond issue, including the timing of the bond issue.

County Treasurer Diane Marburger also believes that the commissioners erred regarding the bond issue.

"We borrowed the money prematurely," she said.

Commissioner James Kennedy was the only commissioner to attend the prison board meeting. He did not comment on what was being said about the bond issue and related investment actions.

The investment decisions to which McMillin was referring amounted to lost revenue for the prison construction, the controller said. And, even if the projected total cost of the prison was not in dispute, the county would have been better off with the extra earnings.

That money could have been used for other needs.

McMillin has consistently raised the valid issue that the county should have relied on a full-fledged bidding process for the bond issue, which the commissioners did not do.

At this stage, there should not be so much financial uncertainty about the prison project, and county leaders should be feeling comfortable about the decisions that have been made up to now.

The fact that that is not the case doesn't bode well for taxpayers over the long run.

County taxpayers can hope for the best, but what they have witnessed so far is not the basis for abundant confidence.

And, what change orders, expensive and otherwise, might be in the offing as the prison project proceeds are another uncertainty that justifies taxpayer unease.

County leaders should be focusing their attention on current project issues at this time. That they're still rehashing such preliminary financial decisions is grounds for wonderment over how well the commissioners did their homework before embarking on something so expensive and extensive.