Butler County is not going to immediately follow Beaver County in offering a buyout to county employees for early retirements to cut costs.

The county retirement board, comprised of the three commissioners, the controller and the treasurer, agreed Tuesday to not push an early retirement incentive at this time.

Commissioner Leslie Osche, board chairman, said in an interview nothing could be done without knowing who would be eligible for a buyout offer.

“You could lose people you need,” Osche said.

Controller Ben Holland agreed.

“You don’t know who is going to take it,” he said in an interview.

Holland said along with determining who could leave, a lot of work would need to be done calculating numbers.

“None of that has been done,” he said.

Holland said he would need to see a cost savings from implementing a buyout.

“I wouldn’t support it unless a conclusive case was made for significant savings,” he said.

Beaver County this year offered a buyout to roughly 130 workers who would be replaced by lower paid employees or not at all.

Although Butler County officials are not ready to initiate a buyout, they are willing to research more information needed to do one.

Treasurer Diane Marburger said the county is checking on the cost to do such a study.

“It doesn’t mean we’re going to do it,” Marburger said.

She concurred with other retirement board members that the county is not ready to do any more than establish the cost for a study.

“We have nothing to hang our hats on at the moment,” Marburger said.