Winter eats up snow budgets across the state

NEW HAVEN, Conn. (WTNH) -- Spring can't come soon enough for cash-strapped cities and towns. The blizzard and several other winter storms have eaten up snow budgets across the state.

In New haven, there isn't a lot of white on the ground now but clearing the snow this season cost a lot of green and now snow budgets are in the red.

After a long winter, Connecticut cities and towns are all in the same.

"Our snow budget has been exceeded and then some," said West Haven Mayor John Picard.

Picard says West Haven budgeted a little more than $100,000 for snow removal but spent about $475,000, more than $300,000 over the budget. The town is looking for federal funding to help off-set the cost.

"We're going to work through this and we're going to work hard to get the reimbursement from FEMA," said Picard.

FEMA has already agreed to assist New Haven with its snow expenses but the city is still hoping for more funding.

"We're working with the state and our congressional delegation on how to get a larger coverage of that. We were doing clean-up for over a week, so our costs were spread out among many different days," said New Haven Chief Administrative Officer Rob Smuts.

New Haven set aside about $400,000 dollars to pay for overtime and hire contractors during this winter but the Elm City spent about $2.5 million, exceeding its budget by $2.1 million.

"It's work we had to do, so we're going to need to figure out how to pay for it, move money around from different account in the city budget to help with those costs," said Smuts.

While they count costs and move money, cities and towns are hoping Tuesday's snowfall was the last of the season.

"We're waiting for spring," said Picard.