As it has been adopted, the City of Butler Ordinance No. 1622 will provide "for temporary tax exemption for certain improvements to deteriorated industrial, commercial, and other business property and new construction in deteriorated area." The deteriorated area by this ordinance is designated as all property located with zoning districts M-2, M-1, C-1, C-2, or R-0. The LERTA will exempt 100% of the eligible assessment for a period of ten (10) years. It is important to note; however, that the original property tax assessment will remain in place.

"A LERTA tax abatement program is intended to be a win-win for both private property owners and local governments," states Becky Smith, Butler Downtown's Main Street Manager. "The LERTA provides an incentive to existing and potential property owners to make improvements to buildings while not raising the assessed value of the property for ten years. At the same time, local government entities do not lose any existing tax revenue on the property; but, by providing an incentive; hope to grow their tax revenues when the ten year period ends."

The LERTA program was reintroduced to City Council in October 2009 by Butler Downtown's Economic Restructuring Committee. The committee, which consists of all volunteers, has been researching similar tax incentive programs in Western Pennsylvania municipalities and continues to work on developing ideas for solutions to Butler's issues. The Economic Restructuring Committee's next steps will be to present the LERTA program to the City's two other taxing bodies, Butler County and Butler School District, in hope of having both entities adopt the LERTA program for those areas in the city as well.