"City debates new tax," the lead story in Wednesday's Butler Eagle, didn't give city residents, or people who work in the city, much for which to be thankful. The story was the latest installment of bad news regarding the city's ongoing financial plight. It further cemented the fact that, without drastic measures, Butler will be hard-pressed to avoid state fiscally distressed status.

Troubling amid the money crisis is the lack of a unified direction or unified will by the current elected leaders on what needs to be done, coupled with the major uncertainties inherent in the unfinished contract negotiations with police, firefighters and other municipal workers.

Then there's the lame-duck status of three of the five council members — Mayor Leonard Pintell and Councilmen Joseph Bratkovich and Charles Savannah — whose seats will revert to newly elected members on the first Monday of January. While some people might say it's better that incoming council members not be locked into major options with which they might not agree, it remains unsettling that the outgoing group of veteran council members has consistently been unable to make bigger inroads at stabilizing the city's financial future.

Regarding the three outgoing council members, their legacy will be a lack of fiscal accomplishment and a band-aid approach to budget making. Hopefully, the incoming council members will have the courage and determination not to imitate their predecessors' failings, especially the inability to make tough decisions when they needed to be made — especially regarding the costly police and fire departments.

There will be no "honeymoon" for the Council of 2006. From day one, the challenge of righting Butler's fiscal ship will be a pressing daily issue that, if not correctly addressed, will ensure that a state board of control under distressed status will eventually be calling the unpleasant shots.

And, popularity with city residents and workers won't be one of the control board's goals or concerns.

It's been known for a long time that the big-ticket items — the city's police and fire departments, which together eat up about $4.1 million of the $4.3 million in taxes collected — will have to bear a significant share of the negative impact, if the city has any hopes of achieving a financial turnaround. But the current council hasn't acted in that regard.

Meanwhile, the city had an approved source of additional cash for the current year by opting for its full available share of emergency municipal services tax (EMS) revenue, which would have amounted to $47 of the $52 that could have been collected from anyone who works in the city ($5 of whatever is collected goes to the Butler School District). Instead of $47, the city set its share for 2005 at $26, giving up $21 from each worker, despite the ongoing financial crisis.

Meanwhile, the council has avoided the issue of going back to court for approval to raise the real estate tax further beyond the limit allowed under the Third-Class Cities Code. The tax cap for Butler is 25 mills, but in the early 1990s court approval was won for an additional five mills.

Considering the city's financial dilemma, there can be no certainty that the county court would reject a further increase. But without any real moves at significant cost-cutting, it would seem ill-advised for the court to OK such a request.

However, a significantly higher property tax would be likely under financially distressed community status, since sympathy for taxpayers wouldn't be a key component of a board of control's agenda.

Perhaps Councilman Mitch Ufner's lone voice about the necessity of eliminating the paid police and fire departments is really not as far off-base as some people might believe, if leaders can't agree merely on scaling back manpower, benefits and other expenses tied to those departments.

For their own overall, long-term good, those bargaining units ought to be trying to help elected city leaders find ways to significantly reduce costs, but there hasn't been any public evidence of such a notable gesture being in the works.

Financially, the City of Butler is in a "world of hurt" for which time for local remedial action is running out.

The odds of winning the Pennsylvania Lottery's Cash 5 game jackpot — one in about 575,000 — seems more possible than achieving fiscal stability for the city via the current unproductive methods currently being employed.