The $300,000 windfall soon to be added to the City of Butler's budget following Harrisburg lawmakers' approval of a jump in the Emergency Service and Municipal Tax - formerly known as the Occupational Privilege Tax - to $47 from $5 might have produced a sigh of relief in the city. But that would be exactly the wrong reaction.

This additional tax revenue should be seen as a window of opportunity or a brief reprieve, not a bailout or permanent fix.

The dramatic jump in the tax on most people working in Butler will help the city avoid bankruptcy, but it will not put the city on the road to recovery. If the city council does nothing to better control spending, the city will likely find itself again in dire financial straits a few years from now.

City officials need to look carefully at all of the city's expenses. The big jump in tax revenue will buy them some time, but without determination to bring down operating costs, the city will return to the brink of bankruptcy before long.

What's needed now is a cooperative effort with all city workers - the unionized fire, police and office employees - recognizing that the city cannot maintain the current cost structure.

Various changes negotiated now and implemented in the next union contracts should include:

More flexibility in staffing levels or the hiring of outside workers.

An agreement to sharply reduce overtime expenses.

An agreement on some level of co-payments for health benefits as is common with most workers receiving company-sponsored health benefits.

A reduction in paid vacation and sick days as well as elimination of the buy-back provisions that permit employees to be paid cash for unused sick days or vacation days.

There should be a careful scrutiny of every aspect of these employment contracts, which represent the lion's share of the city budget, so that pay and benefits more closely reflect what other workers in the area receive - and what the city taxpayers can afford to pay.

Similar changes are occurring across the country - not because they are easy, but because they are necessary.

Just last week, Pittsburgh City Council approved a budget that included significant spending cuts and benefit reductions, coupled with new tax revenues, to help that city return to solvency.

Butler's municipal employees or their representatives must sit down with elected leaders and agree to changes that reflect the realities facing the city. Butler has experienced a loss of population and stagnant - or negative - economic development. It has been struggling financially for years and can no longer support the cost structure that has built up over the past several decades.

If reasonable cost savings for the city can be worked into the next labor contracts with firefighters, police and other city workers, it might be possible to avoid the draconian cuts that would probably be necessary in a bankruptcy or Act 47 (distressed city) situation.

But city leaders must do more than simply balance the budget and avoid bankruptcy. They need to develop a plan to improve the city's infrastructure, to make the city more attractive to business, shoppers and residents. They need to invest in the streets that have been neglected for decades.

City leaders need to help put Butler on a positive track.

City officials cannot simply bank the new tax money and act as if everything is OK.

Apart from seeing the $300,000 in new tax revenue as a window of opportunity, city leaders should also recognize the $120,000 from the building permit for the new county jail for what it is - a non-recurring, one-time infusion of cash. This money should not be applied to normal operations. It should be used for capital improvements or to bolster the firemen's or police pension funds, if they are underfunded.

Though the tax is now called the Emergency Service and Municipal Tax, the big increase has many people thinking about the former name and wondering exactly what privileges they are paying for due to the simple fact that they work in Butler.

City leaders need to not only control spending and avoid deficit scenarios, but they also need to do things to stop the decline of the city and begin to move it forward. This will take more than the additional $300,000 a year will provide. A significantly larger financial cushion will be needed to put the city on the road to recovery.

To help accomplish this, city officials should reconsider participating in the state's Early Intervention Program, which guides potentially distressed cities through the financial planning process.

The City of Butler is at a crossroads; redirecting momentum from stagnation and decline and toward growth and prosperity will take effort and sacrifice on the part of everyone involved.

The immediate crisis of bankruptcy has passed, but city officials and city workers now have to get to work on the difficult job of reducing expenses, living within the city's means, and ensuring financial reserves to help move the city forward.

-J.L.W.III