While genuine tax reform still remains elusive on the state level, it must not go unnoticed how the Butler Township commissioners have chosen to help fixed-income property owners in that municipality.

Barring an unexpected change of heart at the time of final budget adoption on Dec. 19, the commissioners plan to reduce the real-estate tax to 11 mills from 13 mills. To compensate for the loss of that revenue, the commissioners plan to increase the emergency municipal services tax to $52 from $10 ($5 of the amount collected goes to the Butler School District).

The change means that people who work in the township — non-residents as well as residents — will pay more for their privilege of working in the municipality, but township property owners, whether or not they work in the township, will have a lower real-estate-tax bill. Meanwhile, according to Gerald Patterson Jr., township manager, people who make $12,000 or less a year will be exempt from the EMS tax.

Not only will the proposed change benefit those who pay the township's property tax, it also will provide more money to the township's coffers. It is estimated that the higher EMS tax will bring in an additional $390,000 during 2006, while the two-mill decrease will result in $214,000 less property tax revenue being collected — a $176,000 increase in income for the township.

Township property owners have enjoyed a dozen years without a real-estate-tax increase. Now there's a positive new twist for the many who won't be stung more by the EMS increase than with the additional two mills of property tax.

This change shows that the commissioners have been thinking, unlike state lawmakers who continue adopting purported tax-reform plans containing so many questions and uncertainties that few people feel comfortable embracing them.