Snow removal costs keep piling up.
In his preliminary budget address this afternoon, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that the city is adding $35 million to the Sanitation Department’s budget to account for snow removal. The city, which has been slammed by a series of “polar vortexes” since Mr. de Blasio’s inauguration, started the year with a $57 million budget for snow removal. The city’s snow response budget has now been boosted to $92 million–which may come in handy as the winter woes aren’t over.
Mr. de Blasio’s announcement comes the night before a Nor’easter is expected to drop six to ten inches of snow on the city, according to the National Weather Service.
Part of the snow removal budget will go toward salt purchases. Since the city found itself in an apparent salt shortage last week, prices have skyrocketed.
The new budget will pay for the many clean-ups 2014 has already demanded, and hopefully cover the costs of this weekend’s snow removal–as long as some of that snow plow budget is directed to the Upper East Side.
