"The oil-field industry brings in some oil-field trash, people who ply on that craft and engage in theft, vandalism and other crime," Baker said. "If those things decrease, we know we'd have to have a reduction of force."

Provo also carries the full 18 percent surplus, but staying at that cap has required some maneuvering. The City Council anticipated last summer that revenues would be higher than budgeted, so it earmarked about $900,000 to buy land for a park, pay a portion of employee bonuses, launch a remodel and seismic upgrade for city offices and temporarily fund the Downtown Business Alliance.

That still left the city $542,000 above the cap. Tonight, the Provo City Council is expected to vote to transfer that money to an investment fund for future land purchases to aid economic development.

The council is already planning for another expected surplus for Fiscal Year 2008, which ends in June. The council has agreed to put $750,000 into the same land fund if those surpluses materialize.

So far, it looks as though the money will be there. Sales-tax revenues ran 5 percent ahead of budgeted revenues for the first three months of this fiscal year (July-September), Provo finance director John Borget said.

Things aren't so rosy in Naples, where leaders are bracing for less oil activity and for 2012, when the state tax commission changes the formula for distributing sales tax revenue back to cities. The result is expected to hurt Naples and some other smaller cities and towns.

"We've got to have some commercial activity or we'll see a considerable drop in our funds," Baker said. "We've had some interest from some restaurants and motels, but we've been unsuccessful so far. People in surrounding areas are constantly saying we should get a grocery store.

"If you can put out a good word, we could really use it."

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E-mail: twalch@desnews.com