Another beam of governmental common sense may be emerging.

As Vista hammers out the details of a budget for the upcoming fiscal year, the city is aggressively seeking from its three labor unions one-year agreements -- a saner approach than the traditional multiyear agreements that lock in future payroll increases with no sense of what additional money might exist to pay for them.

This move, if successful, will be an example for other governmental entities to emulate. And if the pension reform ideas we lauded Thursday come to fruition, perhaps our local governments finally will be on the path to eliminate the unsupportable retirement benefits awarded in the past to various public employees.

Local governments throughout California have been in budgeting high gear these past few weeks, all under the cloud of whether Sacramento will decide to "borrow" up to $2 billion of their funds in order to balance the state's budget.

The Vista, Escondido, Carlsbad and Poway city councils are still tussling with their plans for the fiscal year that begins July 1, as are numerous area school boards and other governmental entities. The cities of Oceanside, San Marcos and Encinitas have already adopted their budgets.

Vista has an unique opportunity to enact a reform of its own with its three expiring labor contracts. Two agreements were signed two years ago and the third (with the Vista Firefighters Association) was a five-year deal set long before the housing bubble collapse.

Vista should stick to its pursuit of one-year contracts now and in the future. Doing so eliminates one of the many flaws in multiyear agreements: Guaranteeing annual pay raises far in advance of knowing what tax revenues will look like.

Yes, renegotiating each year is a time-consuming and costly process, but those costs can recouped by having more flexibility in keeping future payroll cost growth from exceeding available revenues.

Vista is already a leader in fiscal responsibility; it is one of two cities in the county that requires employees to pay their full share of contributions to the state retirement program.

With hope, the city will also lead in eliminating multiyear labor union contracts.