BUTLER TWP — Township manager Ed Kirkwood says state officials have told him to expect only 40 percent of the liquid fuels money allocated to the municipality if Pennsylvania’s budget impasse continues into March.

The potential shortfall doesn’t put the municipality in immediate jeopardy, but does represent hundreds of thousands of dollars in expenses that were expected to be covered by state money and would have to be paid for by other means.

Kirkwood told the township commissioners about the problem at their meeting Monday night.

He said the township must decide whether to delay certain actions, such as putting next season’s seal coat work out to bid, based on the possibility of a liquid fuels shortfall. The township was expecting about $457,000 from the state by March.

Any shortfall also could impact how the township handles its road salt, as well as how it pays its street lighting bill of about $19,000 per month.

Kirkwood said the township has enough funds set aside to pay the lighting bill through July, but road salt use will depend on winter conditions.

The township already has spent $38,000 on road salt this year, and has about 1,600 tons in its on-site inventory. Township road crews have used about 380 tons of road salt since Jan. 1, said Thomas Knights, the township’s roads superintendent.

The township pays $76.80 per ton for the material, an $8 increase from last year’s price, Knights said.

Also, Kirkwood said the township’s search for an assistant manager has yielded 45 resumes, with applicants from as far away as Virginia, Michigan and Georgia. He said it would take about two weeks to set up the first round of interviews for the position.