The Butler County commissioners shouldn't get a pay raise for 2009 if new contracts covering about 500 employees at the Government Center and Sunnyview Rehabilitation and Nursing Center stipulate no raises for those workers. The commissioners used good judgment in promising employees that they, too, would share the workers' hardship, if the new pacts included such a provision.

And, if all of that takes place, it is right for the employees and county taxpayers to expect county row officers to forgo a pay hike also. Rank-and-file employees aren't responsible for the decisions contributing to the financial challenges that county government currently projects, at least part of which stems from the $10-million-over-initial-estimate prison project launched by the previous board of commissioners.

If the rank-and-file have to bite the bullet, so should those who head county departments — all of which have yet to show any real determination to significantly trim their budgets without being prodded to do so.

Meanwhile, if employees covered by the contracts being negotiated do, in fact, receive a raise, the commissioners and row officers should accept no raises bigger than what the union workers receive.

That's despite a 1984 resolution granting the commissioners no less than 4 percent annual pay increases, although Commissioner James Kennedy accepts only about a 2.5 percent increase.

Such a concession by the commissioners — and the row officers — should remain in effect as long as the new contracts remain in force.

The commissioners also have promised to pay the same health care contribution as other county workers, if health care contributions are part of the new contracts.

Raise or not, county workers should not be immune to contributing toward their health insurance, like workers in other business and industrial sectors generally do.

In terms of health care, county workers and officials now get a free ride in terms of that coverage, and that is out of step with most of the rest of the economy.

The contracts affecting the workers in question expire Nov. 30, so there still is time to assemble new agreements before the current ones expire.

Workers have bemoaned the prospect of a wage freeze accompanied by a requirement that they contribute to their health insurance. They say they can't afford that double whammy combined with a higher cost of living and the prospect of a property tax hike stemming from the county government's financial needs.

Unfortunately, neither can workers in other businesses and industries who have been forced to deal with such realities long before now — and at the same time might be receiving significantly lower pay than county employees.

This is a tough time for the county workers to be negotiating new contracts, but workers elsewhere also are facing challenging circumstances. It would be wrong for county workers to feel that they are above facing further belt-tightening tied to the government's fiscal realities, despite the fact that they have received only modest increases for years and aren't responsible for the financial situation facing the county.

Many workers elsewhere have received significantly less amid the same economic climate.

The commissioners are right in their stance regarding the upcoming pay hike. The various row officers should now provide their response to the commissioners' intent.

No one outside of the government can tell rank-and-file workers what they should or should not accept. That is reserved for the negotiations process.

However, having elected the row officers, county residents have a right to expect good judgment on the part of those officials.

Like the commissioners, the row officers should be willing to help accommodate the fiscal realities that lie ahead for the county in whatever way rank-and-file workers are made to do.