With nearly three months remaining of 2007, Harmony Borough Council members are looking forward to 2008 on a positive note.

During the past week, council members gave tentative approval to a spending package for next year that includes no tax increase. The borough also might have a $40,000 surplus from the current year to apply to capital improvements and for buying a new truck next year.

Granted, the budget process in the borough isn't as difficult and complex as in many other places, due to the municipality's size.

However, proper money management is necessary, regardless of a community's size, and Harmony officials are showing that they have the financial situation under control.

Many communities don't act on a tentative spending package until deep into November.

"Obviously, we're not going to be able to do everything," said Councilman Gary Habsburg, who drafted next year's budget plan. Few communities are able to meet all needs within any budget calendar.

Nevertheless, Harmony residents should feel comfortable with how the council is managing their tax revenue and how that management style looks to the future as well as the present.

Communities that avoid serious problems are adept at that management style.

It's right that Evans City officials take a look at parking fines and the cost of parking permits. That should be done annually by all communities as part of their budget processes.But the borough's $2 parking tickets and $15 parking permits are things that make the town special, since few municipalities' permits are as low-cost, and most other communities charge more for parking violations and for the privilege to park.Still, borough officials must ask themselves whether increases would do more harm than good, and how much benefit the additional money would have on the borough's fiscal picture.Specifically, community leaders should look at what potential projects or purchases the money could bring about, then weigh that against whether it would cause more people to avoid local businesses.Police Chief Joe McCombs, who asked the borough council to consider upping the fines and permit fees in response to what is happening on those fronts elsewhere, also suggested that officials reconsider parking rates and dictate that only quarters be used in meters.McCombs is right in voicing his observations and viewpoint to the council, especially at this time when 2008 budget discussions are getting under way.But the council has the obligation to make the decisions that are right for the community, even if that allows Evans City to be among the most fine-friendly communities in the county.Stiff fines aren't always the best fines.

State lawmakers are on the right track in trying to eliminate one of the nation's most restrictive beer-sales laws.But meriting a jeer are the distributors and bar owners who oppose the effort, preferring to ignore the preferences of consumers who want the current rules relaxed.Pennsylvania's beer-sales rules are archaic and contribute to "border bleed," where Pennsylvanians go to a neighboring state to buy a six-pack that they can't buy at a distributor or bar in this state.Referring to the effort's opponents, Sen. John Rafferty, R-Chester, who chairs the Senate Law and Justice Committee, said, "They all have their own little fiefdoms, they all want more and they don't want anybody to get anything else and we said, "The heck with them.' "Rafferty's committee passed the proposed legislation mandating the changes by a 9-1 vote.As an article in Thursday's Butler Eagle reported, under the bill, beer distributors could sell quantities as small as a six-pack. Currently, the state's approximately 1,300 distributors must sell quantities of a case or more.It's the only law of its kind in the United States.In addition, bars would be allowed to sell a maximum of three six-packs at a time, up from the maximum two six-packs they currently can sell, to one customer.The proposed legislation still must pass the full House and Senate. It is to be hoped that the opponents will not prevail.Customers' wishes should predominate consideration of the issue.