No snow is very good for state and local budgets

By this time last winter, PennDot already had spread 18,000 tons of salt around the region. The agency plowed through nearly $20 million before February arrived.

This winter? Thirty-five mountains of salt sit virtually untouched, as does more than half of the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation's $27 million seasonal maintenance budget. Until last Tuesday's dusting, not a grain of salt had been dropped.

Across the river, New Jersey transportation officials have spent just $4.3 million, a pittance compared with the $127.9 million shelled out last season.

After almost 100 inches of snow in two seasons punished commuters, power lines, and municipal budgets, it's not just fingers and toes that are happy about this winter's late arrival. State and local officials are warming to the idea, too.

The near-temperate weather in December and January translates into hundreds of thousands of dollars in savings.

"The salt budget and the snow budget took a beating the last couple of years, so this is definitely refreshing," said Joe DiRocco, director of finance in Chester County's Tredyffrin Township, which was at the nexus of 2014's historic ice storm.

Tuesday's squall, which required a little salt and brine but failed to deliver much sticking snow, was only the second snow- and ice-fighting operation of the winter for Pennsylvania and the third for New Jersey. By this time last year, eight winter storms had smacked the Keystone State; twice as many had hit New Jersey.

Not everyone is cheering. Dry weather means fewer jobs for private plow operators. And government workers count on the seasonal overtime.

But without overtime, salt, or plowing, municipalities and state agencies are stockpiling cash. Even if major snowstorms finally land in the next few months, it's unlikely the states will spend more than they did in 2015 or 2014.

Across the commonwealth, PennDot has used just 8 percent as much salt as it had by the end of January last year - 40,000 tons compared with 500,000.

"It's somewhat of a welcome reprieve," PennDot spokesman Gene Blaum said. The winter maintenance money it has spent so far is mainly for yearly fixed costs, he said.

In Pennsylvania, any unspent money from the winter budget will go toward roadway improvement and maintenance, Blaum said. And the mild season has allowed bridge and road projects to move forward during months when they normally would be stalled.

New Jersey Department of Transportation spokesman Steve Schapiro was wary of predicting overall savings. But he said leftover salt at the end of this season will help boost the 2017 budget, he said.

On the local level, the difference between the two winters has been stark.

Last year, Todd Lachenmayer remembers, his public-works employees in Upper Merion saw one another more than they saw their own families as they tried to keep up with the snow.

"It was very trying," said Lachenmayer, the township's highway superintendent. "It just kept piling up on us."

Upper Merion spent $54,000 on worker overtime and $154,000 on snow-removal materials. It hasn't come close to those numbers this year.

"The only way we would exceed it is if we would happen to get a few blizzard conditions back to back," Lachenmayer said.

Utility companies have had it easy, too. The weather so far hasn't caused significant power outages, said Peco spokesman Ben Armstrong.

But, he cautioned, "It's really too early in the winter to talk about."

What some save, however, others lose.

"We are definitely down because of the weather," said Lorraine Lutz, office manager at PA Snow & Ice Management in Ambler.

Last week was the first the company's snow-removal fleet was called out to salt, but the weather was not enough to keep its 22 employees busy. The company has about 20 commercial contracts, Lutz said, and its trucks are just waiting for snow.

"I would say within three weeks, if there's no chance of any good snow, we're probably going to have to lay some people off," she said.

They are praying for snow - but everyone else is hoping the quiet winter will stay that way.

Lachenmayer looks at it this way: "Every day it doesn't snow is another day closer to spring."

jmcdaniel@philly.com

610-313-8205@McDanielJustine