Faced with a proposed 2-mill property tax increase, Schuylkill County officials on Wednesday sent a preliminary 2017 budget back to the drawing board.

"We've asked our finance team and our county administrator to go back and look at the numbers, because we want to make sure that we are working as efficiently as possible, and to see if there are any other areas that we can look to trim down our expenditures," said Commissioners' Chairman George F. Halcovage Jr.He said the three major cost areas are the prison, the Children and Youth Services Agency, and health benefits.The heroin epidemic is fueling a rise in the prison population, and overcrowding in May prompted the state Department of Corrections to cap the population at 277.To achieve that, the county has been housing inmates at prisons outside the county at a cost of $60 a day per inmate.The Children and Youth expenses are continuing to rise after the state expanded its child abuse laws in the wake of the 2012 Jerry Sandusky child abuse scandal.Sandusky, a retired Penn State University defensive coach, was convicted in June 2012 of sexually assaulting 10 boys over 15 years.Health care costs have been skyrocketing for almost everyone.County Administrator Gary Bender asked commissioners to table the vote so the proposed spending plan could be reviewed to see where cuts could be made.As presented, the preliminary budget called for $62,109,185 in expenditures and $57,315,867 in revenue.Even with an infusion of about $4.8 million from the unassigned fund balance, the spending plan carried a 2-mill increase, from 13.98 mills to 15.98 mills.That would mean the owner of a property assessed for taxes at $50,000 would pay $799 in property tax, up from $699.Halcovage said commissioners would likely approve a preliminary budget at the first meeting in December, with a final budget to be adopted in the last week of that month.