Serious snow covered the roads and bridges last week, calling out PennDOT crews to start spreading road salt from the small mountains it began building this summer.

No shortage there -- 1,034,127 tons had already been distributed to stockpiles across the state. Vendors are under contract to deliver another 300,000 tons if winter delivers a knockout punch.

The big difference between last season and this season is money. What cost $35.08 a ton last year has jumped to $58.24 a ton this season.

Consequently, state taxpayers could be socked with a record $75 million salt bill if PennDOT goes through all 1.3 million tons, compared to $45.7 million for the winter of 2007-08.

Adding the costs of trucks, fuel, anti-skid materials, environmentally approved storage sheds, snow plows, loaders, 24/7 work shifts and related expenses, PennDOT spends as much on winter road clearance as it does on summer road resurfacing.

An industrywide salt shortage that has jacked up prices for PennDOT and many municipalities has impacted the private sector as well.

Chuck DiLoreto, a partner in Green Tree-based PWC Property Solutions Inc., has snow-removal contracts for apartment complexes, suburban office buildings and shopping centers.

When he began looking for 1,500 tons of road salt in July, he was told none might be available because the priority of salt companies was filling big orders for government agencies such as PennDOT.

Salt company reps said a worse-than-average last winter depleted supplies. They blamed disruptive weather in salt-producing regions, high transportation costs and other things.

After being quoted prices up to $125 a ton, Mr. DiLoreto found salt for $95 a ton compared to $43 a ton he paid last year.

"For $175 a ton, I could have had all I wanted, so where's the shortage?" he said, suspicious that the salt industry may be hoodwinking the public like the oil industry. "At $95 a ton, I consider myself lucky."

When people began driving less, gas prices dropped.

Maybe we need to wait for sun to melt some snow instead of demanding to drive 55 mph on bare roads as soon as the first flake falls.

Maybe we need to go on a low-salt diet.

Authority issue. Local 85, Amalgamated Transit Union, representing 2,300 Port Authority bus-trolley workers, consistently points to employee contributions for health care as a stumbling block toward settling the current labor dispute.

"You're wrong and you need to make a correction," a bus driver's spouse recently yelled at me. "They're not being asked to pay 3 percent. It's 7 1/2 percent, then 10 percent."

Let's set the record straight.

Local 85 employees currently contribute 1 percent of their base wage, while management, non-represented employees and transit police pay 3 percent.

The Post-Gazette has consistently reported that the union is being asked to pay 3 percent or the equivalent in the final year of a new contract.

That's true under a fact-finder's report rejected by union leaders and that's true under an imposed contract to go in effect Dec. 1.

However, the latter calculates employee contributions differently, as 7 1/2 percent of healthcare premiums (HMO or PPO) effective Jan. 1, 2009, equivalent to almost 2 percent of base wages, and 10 percent of premiums effective Jan. 1, 2010, equivalent to almost 3 percent of base wages.

Either way, Local 85 workers would be about on par with nonunion authority personnel just over a year from now.

"But the insurance premiums will go up," the woman argued.

Of course. So will Local 85 wages and the price of bread.

Translated into dollars, a Local 85 worker would have to pay $94.21 a month for HMO family coverage or $87.20 for PPO health insurance under the imposed contract, plus 42 cents a month for vision and $2.89 a month for dental.

An individual would have to pay $32.02 a month for HMO coverage or $29.64 for PPO insurance, plus 20 cents for vision and 88 cents for dental.

At most, a Local 85 employee in an HMO would pay $1,175.76 for health, vision, dental and prescription coverage for his family next year.

An individual in a PPO would contribute $363.12 for blanket coverage for the year.

"Why don't you tell us what you pay?" the woman persisted.

OK.

The PG deducted the maximum $2,500 employee contribution (5 percent) toward my health care this year, or $2,137 more than a single bus driver with the same coverage would pay next year. The PG's insurer also requires a higher co-pay for doctor's visits ($25 vs. $20) and a higher annual deductible ($1,000 vs. $250) for individual coverage.

Mr. Know-it-all is a PG union member.

If he had what the Port Authority's union is turning down, he'd have an extra $50 a week to blow.