`RAPIDLY' DETERIORATING, COUNTRY ROADS FACE $300 MILLION BILL FOR REPAIR WORK.Byline: CHARLES F. BOSTWICK Staff Writer PALMDALE - Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. County needs hundreds of millions of dollars to repair its deteriorating de·te·ri·o·rate v. de·te·ri·o·rat·ed, de·te·ri·o·rat·ing, de·te·ri·o·rates v.tr. To diminish or impair in quality, character, or value: streets and roads, the county's top public works public works pl.n. Construction projects, such as highways or dams, financed by public funds and constructed by a government for the benefit or use of the general public. Noun 1. official said. About $300 million is needed to repair existing potholes and other road damage, plus an additional $70 million annually for ongoing maintenance, but only $15 million is expected to be spent every year, Public Works Director Donald L. Wolfe said. ``We are falling behind at a rapid pace,'' Wolfe told members of the Palmdale Chamber of Commerce at a luncheon Wednesday. The county's road fund was hit by $100 million worth of damage done to streets and roads by 2005 storms, he said. It also lost gasoline gasoline or petrol, light, volatile mixture of hydrocarbons for use in the internal-combustion engine and as an organic solvent, obtained primarily by fractional distillation and "cracking" of petroleum, but also obtained from natural gas, by sales tax sales tax, levy on the sale of goods or services, generally calculated as a percentage of the selling price, and sometimes called a purchase tax. It is usually collected in the form of an extra charge by the retailer, who remits the tax to the government. revenue diverted di·vert v. di·vert·ed, di·vert·ing, di·verts v.tr. 1. To turn aside from a course or direction: Traffic was diverted around the scene of the accident. 2. by the state to ease its own budget crunch. The storm-repair costs are likely to affect county road repair funds for several years, he said. Los Angeles County property tax revenue is expected to jump from rising property values, but there are no plans to put that money into streets and other infrastructure, he said. County officials have asked Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's staff to add $2 billion for local roads and streets to the $222 billion state infrastructure plan that the governor failed to get on the June ballot. The state bond could go before voters in November. The state bond proposal earmarked money for state highways and transit projects, but not for local streets, Wolfe said. |
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