The message emanating from Butler County's annual financial report covering 2004 is that county leaders must redouble efforts to control spending. If they don't, additional property tax increase will be necessary.

The property tax was 24.5 mills in 2004, 7 mills higher than in the year 2000. An additional 3 mills were added for 2005 - not reflected in the newly released financial report - representing an increasingly troubling trend for a county government that for years had touted itself as being cost-conscious and fiscally responsible.

Financial obligations accompanying upcoming major projects, such as construction of a new prison, are further cause for taxpayer uneasiness, if only because county leaders can't say with absolute certainty at this juncture that enough money was borrowed for the project.

If not, the unfunded burden will end up on the shoulders of county property owners, exacerbating the drain on available resources.

Fortunately for this county, fast-paced growth, coupled with small tax increases, allowed general-fund spending to increase markedly without the county flirting with the prospect of red ink. Most counties couldn't have general-fund spending increase as much as Butler County's has without risking the prospect of not being able to balance their budgets.

Butler's general-fund spending increased to $42.5 million in 2004 from $29.6 million in 2000 - nearly $13 million.

Thanks to the continuing growth and hikes in the millage rate, the county recorded an $8 million budget balance at 2004 year's end, but that figure was about $2 million less than the budget balance on hand at the end of 2003.

Unless the county finds a way to cut costs, a lower end-of-year balance on Dec. 31 of this year is not out of the question.

However, the county commissioners have yet to reveal any major cost-cutting initiatives, although they have given lip service to that objective.

The penchant for increasing the size of the county government's workforce hasn't helped the budget picture. Neither have the operating deficits recorded by Sunnyview Nursing Home - $1.6 million in 2003 and $800,000 in 2004.

It would seem that since one of the concerns is that the home is not fully occupied, the county ought to be striving harder to get the word out to the community that space is available. The county has consistently been weak in communicating that message.

County controller Jack McMillin says he believes the county should not be accumulating end-of-year fund balances as large as this county has recorded over the past decade - usually within the range of $6 million to $10 million. Under normal circumstances, his is a valid argument. And, tax increases should not be imposed when a healthy budget balance exists.

But this is an extraordinary time, with the new prison, proposed Sunnyview renovations and the new 911 center portending to test county financial planning in a way never before encountered.

All considered, then, there is justifiable cause for county taxpayers to be concerned about what county spending and tax decisions lie ahead. A $13 million increase in general fund spending over four years for a budget the size of Butler County's raises the specter that all might not be well for the long term.