Former Butler city clerk Bob Brehm says the city could be headed for bankruptcy if its budget issues are not addressed

Tuesday night he gave city council members a discouraging analysis of Butler's $7.34 million 2010 budget.

He said the city has had a deficit every year since 1999 except for 2006 and 2007, and those two years Brehm called aberrations. Their totals were plumped up by revenues from construction permits when the county prison was built and when the new 2-mill recreation tax and a new Local Services Tax were started.

"I fully appreciate the difficulty (council) faced in adopting a balanced budget for 2010 that has some semblance of fiscal integrity," Brehm said.

"But I also do not see how a strategy of borrow and spend or tax and spend is going to place the city on firm financial footing in the coming years."

The 2010 budget is balanced with $212,930 in prior-year funds, and includes a $93,000 loan for buying two vehicles as well as a $500,000 loan for street paving.

He suggested the city submit its case to the state for distressed financial status through the Municipal Financial Recovery Act, also called Act 47.

The deadline to file is March 15.

The council meets again at 7 p.m. Thursday.