Washoe County Commissioners today awarded a roads contract for $2,518,147 with ability to add two additional alternatives for a total not to exceed $2.9 million.

Repair and maintenance of County streets and parking lots is part of the County’s Public Works Department’s pavement infrastructure preservation program. Its objective is to keep maintenance and replacement costs of roads in the unincorporated areas at a minimum by investing in less-expensive routine road maintenance activities. However, as the County has reduced its spending by $123 million over the past four years in response to declining sales tax and property tax revenues, the investment in the infrastructure preservation program has also been reduced and the anticipated long-term effect will be a deterioration of the quality of our roads if funding continues to decline.

Washoe County faces a $33.5 million deficit for the 2011-2012 fiscal year which begins July 1st, and is asking for labor concessions for the fourth consecutive year in addition to further operating cuts and use of dwindling reserves. The Nevada State Legislature will also consider Governor Sandoval’s recommendation that property tax revenues be diverted once again from county government to the State as well as some state services transferred to county governments in an effort to meet their fiscal challenges. Washoe County estimates this would result in an additional $25 million impact to the already existing $33.5 million deficit it faces this coming fiscal year, with another $25 million impact for the 2012-13 fiscal year.

Before the impact of any Legislative actions, the County had planned to increase funding of infrastructure in fiscal year 2011-12 to address this concern.