If you think our streets are crumbling before our very eyes, you're not alone.

The latest California Statewide Local Streets and Roads Needs Assessment by the League of California Cities shows that our roads are in “rapid decline” and that our budget to fix them is perhaps even worse.

The assessment says that unless we come up with the cash to fix our streets …

… one out of four of the roads across California will be in “failed” condition within 10 years.

The assessment says it we're under-funding our street maintenance and repair by more than $82 billion but that such an investment would protect $189 billion worth of taxpayer dollars underlying our roadway infrastructure.

In other words, as League of California Cities executive director Chris McKenzie put it:

It costs far less to repair and maintain roads than to replace them. State and local governments, the Legislature, and the people of California have a choice. We can either spend money now and make the repairs, or expect to pay a lot more in the future.

If you read LA Weekly you already know that Los Angeles continually ranks as one of the very top cities with the worst roads in the nation, a distinction that used to belong to East Coast towns like Philadelphia and Washington, D.C.

The cost of saving L.A.'s roads will by far cost more than rescuing streets in any other California county: $12.5 billion over 10 years, according to the assessment.

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L.A. county roads remain “at risk,” as they have since 2008, the study says.

Matt Cate, executive director of the California State Association of Counties:

Unless this crisis is addressed, costs to maintain the local system will only continue to grow, while the safety, quality and reliability of California's local transportation network worsens. California needs economic growth and jobs right now, and restoring our deteriorating transportation infrastructure will foster both.

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