Butler City Council meets tonight to vote on a July 4 fireworks display — for which the city has insufficient funds.

The plan is to present the show at Kelly Automotive Park on the 4th, which is a Friday night. Zambelli Internationale of New Castle will put on the show for $11,000.

And Mayor Tom Donaldson admits he doesn’t know where the money will come from — but that the city has an obligation to show its patriotic pride on the country’s birthday.

“We still have a ways to go,” he said Tuesday night at an agenda session. He didn’t say how far we’ve come — how much cash actually is on hand for fireworks.

The city is seeking donations from residents and businesses to pay for the attraction, which will follow a Butler BlueSox baseball game and a concert put on by the ballclub.

We hope it’s not too late to suggest another option.

According to the Blue Sox’ season schedule, there is a fireworks display already set for the following night, July 5.

It’s the same location: Kelly Automotive Park. The same fireworks company: Zambelli. The same warmup show: a Blue Sox game. It’s even the same team, the Danville Dans from Danville, Ill.

Wouldn’t it make more sense just to move Saturday’s fireworks show to Friday night, pool the city’s resources with those already committed by Blue Sox sponsors, and stage a bigger, better show on the fourth?

Or, leave it as it’s scheduled and add the city’s contribution to beef up Saturday’s display.

The idea makes sense — it could be like a block party, the more the merrier.

We suppose there could be reasons not to merge the shows. The Blue Sox have their own deal and their own obligations to vendors and fans, for example.

But ultimately, it’s the same night sky, the same appreciative audience, the same patriotic celebration. What or who would be hurt if the celebration were bigger, brighter, louder and longer? Who could be disappointed by that?

The alternative is not no sensible: incurring debt to express our patriotism and feed our appetite for pyrotechnics.

As a community, we’re bigger than that. Our Independence Day party should be bigger, too.