Officials at the St. Louis Community College system say that members of a jury who found the institution liable for $850,000 in a sexual-harassment case are punishing the community by forcing local authorities to increase taxes, by making the system cut programs or raise tuition, or by bringing about all three.

“There will be consequences to the public,” Priscilla Gunn, the college’s lawyer in the case, told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “The college provides good services for many people. There is no money in the budget for something like this.”

Ms. Gunn’s comments echoed the court testimony of Henry D. Shannon, the system’s chancellor, who warned the jury that substantial damages could result in reduced services and tax and tuition increases, according to the Post-Dispatch.

The jury award stemmed from a lawsuit filed by Caren Sharpe, who works as secretary to the police chief at the system’s Meramec campus. She sued the college because she believed her bosses had failed to protect her from the sexual advances of a campus police officer, according to the news report. A jury found in her favor on Friday and awarded her $400,000 in compensatory damages for emotional distress and $450,000 in punitive damages.