Strained snow budgets in Nassau, Suffolk

Suffolk County already has exceeded the year's budget for snow removal, and Nassau County isn't far behind, according to county records.

In Suffolk, spending on overtime, fuel, salt and sand already had topped the $2.87 million budgeted for snow removal this year by $1,000 before Wednesday's storm, a county spokesman said.

Nassau expected to spend $300,000 on Wednesday's storm, putting the county on track to have spent more than 70 percent of its snow budget, County Executive Edward Mangano said.

Nassau's and Suffolk's county executives said snow removal would continue despite the costs.

Nassau will begin transferring funds from other public works accounts to cover any potential shortfall, Mangano said.

Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone said the county will be able to transfer money from other areas of the budget to cover storm costs.

"The bottom line is that public safety is the top priority," Bellone said. "It has been a very active season, obviously, and has had a big impact on the budget."

Both counties said they needed more shipments of salt before another possible storm this weekend. The state provided Long Island towns with 1,600 tons of salt for Wednesday's storm.

"Last year, there was certainly less stress on the county's snow budget," Mangano said. "We carried over some supplies from last year, but this year was certainly more than was anticipated."

Nassau also recently provided some of its salt and sand to local municipalities that were running dangerously low.

Nassau County expects to get another salt delivery Thursday, while Suffolk expects to get deliveries Thursday and Friday.

"We need those deliveries," Bellone said.

Suffolk already has spent more than $1 million on 25,000 tons of salt.

2014 Snow-removal budget: $2.872 million

2014 spending:

$2.873 million

before Wednesday's storm

NASSAU COUNTY

2014 Snow-removal budget: $1.4 million

2014 spending:

$685,854

plus an estimated $300,000 for Wednesday's storm

Source: Nassau, Suffolk counties