Butler City Council took some baby steps last week toward keeping the city out of bankruptcy — anticipated for about three years from now, if city leaders can’t find a solution to the municipality’s burgeoning money problems.

What the council decided won’t go far toward reaching financial stability, but Thursday’s actions, for the most part, demonstrated an acknowledgment of the seriousness of the situation and the fact that even small savings add up to something significant.

Still, what occurred Thursday provided some grounds for concern about whether the city government is just a heartbeat away from falling back into its longtime mind-set of wishful thinking minus a commitment to tough decision making. Evidence of that potential for retreat came in Mayor Maggie Stock’s reasoning for voting against a municipal wage freeze for workers not covered under union contracts.

Stock lamented that the city is asking employees to do more work for less compensation, referring to the approximately $1,000 in cost-of-living raises that the full-time workers in question will not receive in 2011. Part-time workers covered by the freeze will lose $100 to $300.

But while Stock merits praise for her concern about city workers’ well-being, she’s obviously aware that, in these troubled economic times, many workers in private business and industry are expected to do more while not receiving cost-of-living increases either.

More important than next year’s raise is the fact that the workers still will have jobs. If the city eventually falls into bankrupcy, some of the same employees’ jobs might disappear.

Some of the other baby steps that the tentative 2011 budget reflects involve a new employee health plan and axing a plan to buy two new police vehicles.

Instead of the vehicle purchases, the proposed budget doubles the police department’s vehicle maintenance budget to $20,000.

The health-plan change is projected to produce a savings of about $47,000.

City residents concerned about the municipality’s direction must keep in mind that the current budget-preparation time isn’t the critical juncture facing the city. That will come during union contract negotiations that will get under way next year. The result of those negotiations will be a clear indicator of whether bankruptcy, or filing for distressed status with the state, will be inevitable.

Final 2011 budget action is scheduled for 7 p.m. Dec. 16 at the city building. However, law permits the council to amend the budget prior to Feb. 15.

For 2011, that window could have special significance, if a financial task force, which currently is studying the city’s financial situation, produces some money-saving ideas that can be implemented during the upcoming year.

Bankruptcy and distressed status are not panaceas for any community. They make a community less attractive for bringing in new business and other positive ventures.

And, while baby steps won’t solve Butler’s financial dilemma, they represent a positive start, as long as leaders remain determined to push the remedial effort forward — in small, and large, ways.

The coming year is going to be important. The time of tough decisions has only begun.

Retreat is not an option.