WESTBROOK – Winter was a quiet one this year, which makes life easier for people who shovel and snowblow their driveways.

It makes life easier for municipal snowplows, too, and that translates into money saved for Westbrook – more than $100,000 so far.

“We haven’t had any snow removal at nighttime, none, and that’s unusual,” Public Services Director Tom Eldridge said this week.

The savings help the city cope with 2012 expenditures in general, and may indirectly help with Eldridge’s budget for 2013, too. The revelation came this week as Eldridge presented his 2013 spending plan to the city’s Budget Committee. The presentation was one of several that the city’s departments made to the committee, wrapping up this week.

And on March 26, the committee, made up of the City Council, will get answers to lingering questions on the proposed $23.2 million municipal budget. The panel’s revisit list includes items the committee may want to make cuts on, or discuss more in-depth. Last week, for example, the committee demanded a more detailed breakdown of overtime costs from the public safety department.

But the quiet winter has made life a bit easier on public services. Eldridge said this week that the department has so far underspent on road salt, overtime and equipment rentals by as much as $121,000, or 43 percent of the total amount budgeted in those areas for 2012.

The lack of snow removal operations means the department has saved an estimated 7,600 gallons of diesel fuel, Eldridge said, so even skyrocketing fuel prices won’t mean the department will be over budget.

“Our fuel (budget) should be even by the end of the (fiscal) year, or above,” he said.

Unfortunately, Eldridge isn’t allowed to simply roll those savings over into the department’s 2013 budget, he said, but the city is still bound to benefit from the light winter.

“If there are shortcomings in other departments (this year), that should help to make up for it,” he said.

Eldridge said his department can keep what it’s already paid for and not used, such as salt. The city used plenty of it during the winter, he said, but not as much as in 2011.

“We’ll have some left over this year,” he said.

As a result, Eldridge’s 2013 budget calls for buying about 100 fewer tons of road salt than usual, a savings of about $5,000.

Eldridge also said the department cut a position, which is worth about $34,000 plus benefits. The position, Eldridge said, was an unfilled plow truck driver, so no one lost a job with the cut.

Mayor Colleen Hilton and City Administrator Jerre Bryant said to keep costs down, they demanded all department heads submit a 2013 budget 1.5 percent smaller than the one they submitted for 2012. Eldridge said he met that requirement.

Most other department heads did, too, Bryant said, resulting in a proposed 2013 budget that is down nearly $46,000 compared to the 2012 budget.

Despite the cuts, a change in state law is leading to a drop in the city’s property valuation of nearly $20 million, which, if the municipal budget remains unchanged, would force a small increase to the tax rate, Bryant said.

Bryant said the budget alone, without the valuation change, would reduce the city’s property tax rate by 11 cents, but the change is forcing an 8-cent increase.

This means, Bryant said, if the 2013 budget is approved as is, the owner of a $190,000 home would pay a new annual tax bill of $3,321.20, a $15.20 increase.

The final impact on the tax rate will not be known until the school budget is approved. Right now, the district is examining a proposed $31.6 million budget. School Committee Chairman Ed Symbol and Superintendent Marc Gousse have both said the spending plan will likely include many layoffs, and still require a tax increase.

The finance committee is expected to vote on any changes to the proposed budget on Monday. The City Council is expected to vote on a final version of the budget twice, first in late April, and again in May, along with the finalized school budget. The public will vote on the final school budget in a referendum in June.