Snow removal: how are your tax dollars spent?

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) - Snow removal budgets are like moving targets every year for cities and towns. The price of salt can fluctuate wildly; the sheer unpredictability of when or how much snow falls can bust the overtime budget.

So I-Team 8 checked with nearly 50 road bosses all across central Indiana... to see how they're spending your money. We cross referenced the number of trucks they have, the miles of road they cover, what they spend on salt or sand or overtime. And based on population, we figured out how much is spent yearly for each man, woman and child.

All that interactive data posted below, but here are the most expensive, Danville, Westfield and Avon. The least expensive, New Palestine, Elwood and Shelbyville.

Kurt Wanninger heads up the snow fight for Westfield, number two on our list. He says the annual snow removal budget is built in to the overall roads budget.

"However it just depends on what we get that year," says Wanninger. "if we get less snow we get a little more money for paving or road repairs, if we get a lot more snow than we anticipate we'll have to go back to the council for additional appropriations."

Cheyenne Riley is one of Westfield's plow drivers out in the weather today.

"The traffic can be frustrating but it's got to be done so we get out here and do the best we can to try and get the roads cleared up," he says.

And when snow plow drivers like Cheyenne Riley hit the road, they're actually using a tool that will help you know when the plow might reach your street. It's a laptop in their vehicles.

"As our associates clean the streets they're able to click that they're done with this subdivision and they're done with this street,

It's something that City workers can see on their cell phones.... and anyone can see via Google Maps with a link on Westfield's Website .

As plow drivers complete their routes you can watch the number of streets plowed drop.

And back to the numbers we found, at first Wanninger didn't seem too surprised to find out Westfield was near the top of the list. But later Deputy Mayor Bruce Hauk disputed the numbers, claiming other cities and towns must have been underreporting their costs.