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Pulling back the curtains on wage-theft enforcement in MN; Trump's latest attack is on RFK, Jr; NM LGBTQ+ equality group endorses 2024 'Rock Star' candidates; Michigan's youth justice reforms: Expanded diversion, no fees.

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Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says rebuilding Baltimore's Key Bridge will be challenging and expensive. An Alabama Democrat flips a state legislature seat and former Connecticut senator Joe Lieberman dies at 82.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Report: Utah's Failing Roads Cost Each Driver Up to $640 a Year

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Wednesday, August 5, 2015   

SALT LAKE CITY - Failing roads across the Wasatch Front can cost each driver up to $640 in extra vehicle repair and maintenance expense each year, according to a report from TRIP, a transportation research group.

Abby Albrecht, executive director of the Utah Transportation Coalition, said the report shows that nearly a third of urban roadways in the region are described as being in "poor" condition. She said tire damage from potholes, glass damage from rocks and extra fuel expense from congestion are major problems with a far-reaching economic impact.

"If we don't have good, workable transportation infrastructure," she said, "it slows down the economy, it slows the goods and services, it's people sitting in commutes longer, and it just adds onto the deficit of our economy."

Albrecht said a big part of the problem is that cities and counties struggle to maintain crumbling infrastructure with limited funding provided through the gas tax via the state and federal governments. On the bright side, she said, Utah lawmakers passed legislation this year that allows local governments to put a transportation-specific tax increase proposal on the election ballot.

She said the tax increase, which would amount to a portion of a percentage point, would cost the average Utahn about an extra $40 per year, but would provide major public infrastructure improvements.

"It will be dedicated to municipalities' transportation needs," she said, "so, preservation and maintenance of existing roadways, sidewalks and safety signals, improvements to bus service."

Albrecht said the sales-tax increase would provide tens of millions of dollars in new money each year - enough to make meaningful infrastructure improvements. According to the TRIP report, bad roads in Los Angeles and San Francisco cost drivers more than $1,000 a year in extra expenses.

Information on the Utah Transportation Coalition is online at utahtransportation.org. The TRIP report is at tripnet.org.


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