Approximately four months from now, the Butler County commissioners will introduce a tentative 2011 budget that will be given final approval at or near the end of December.

Taxpayers already have cause for concern about whether a tax increase might be in the offing.

Coupled with addressing the increasing cost of general governmental business that the county faces each year, Butler County's commissioners face the prospect of additional significant legal fees stemming from the construction of the new prison.

It has been reported that as of July 14, the county had spent $568,425 for the services of three legal firms and a mediator. A federal lawsuit tied to the project is only in the discovery phase and presumably will increase the prison legal bill by much more before that case reaches a conclusion.

And while the county has been fortunate to have remnants of the $50 million borrowed in connection with the project from which to pay the legal costs up to now, only about $350,000 remains, and the legal morass might require much more money than that.

Depending on how much cost control the commissioners are able to put in place for the new year will impact the need and amount of any tax hike that might be proposed.

Commissioner Dale Pinkerton made a good point at a meeting last month. He said the county must fight the legal battle because "if we didn't follow through, it could cost us millions of dollars."

But it's also appropriate to observe that even if the county wins in court, by the time the cost is tallied for all of the legal maneuverings tied to the case, the cost of the prison legal battles — the part already fought and that part still to come — could be well above $1 million.

Presumably money not spent for legal fees — money acquired by the county through a 2011 tax increase — could be returned to the taxpayers by way of a tax decrease later. But tax reductions are much less frequent than tax increases, and there always is the prospect of unanticipated problems that would consume the money.

It's too early to predict whether the commissioners actually will impose a 2011 tax increase but, all considered, county property owners have good reason to bet that there will be one.

Some of the errors tied to the project, one of which was setting an unrealistic project completion date, continue to haunt county government and the taxpayers. The commissioners already should be looking aggressively toward ways general fund money can be saved now and in the coming year.