Finalizing their 2010 budgets over the next few weeks, cities across the state are making t0ugh decisions about what services to cut in light of state aid losses. The City of Mankato, which is staring down a $1.5 million cut in state aid for 2010, recently announced that it will cut its snow removal budget by keeping overtime hours to a minimum and restructuring plowing policies, such as plowing main roads before residential roads and plowing only two lanes of major four-lane roads. In some cases, snow plows may only pass residential roads once, and snow emergencies—which can close certain roads altogether—will be called more often. The city decided to implement these cuts as a way to keep property tax increases to a minimum. Learn more about cuts to snow removal budgets in the video below:
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01Dec
Posted by admin @ 5:50 pm
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December 8th, 2009 at 8:06 am
[...] When the first major snow storm of the winter is about to hit, we Minnesotans expectedly make a big deal out of it. Why wouldn’t we? We love snow. However, we also like our streets to be plowed in short order. That may not be the case this year. In the last 12 months, the Governor has slashed revenue to communities by $416 million, with more expected this week. To keep property taxes at a somewhat reasonable level, cities are reducing services, including snow removal. [...]