Snow slammed ’09 budget
By Alyssa Schafer, Editor
The McLean County budget was hit hard in 2009, due in large part to an unusually snowy winter. Snow removal costs amounted to more than 10 percent of the county’s roughly $7.5 million 2009 budget, McLean County Auditor Les Korgel said. While the county budgeted $50,000 to have contractors help remove snow last year, the actual cost of snow removal exceeded that amount by more than $800,000 in the months of January and February, Korgel said. Those snow removal expenses went above and beyond the cost of operating the county’s own snow removal equipment, he said. To help control the impact of the snow removal costs, McLean County Commissioners implemented budgetary restrictions. According to the 2009 McLean County budget narrative, these restrictions called for no new capital purchases, the elimination of several new programs and the preapproval of expenditures.
