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While the county has been building new roads and fixing old ones every year since ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ became a state, the decision to create a line in the county budget specifically for street maintenance is new.

There is little debate on whether the county has spent enough on road repairs — estimates of a road-repair backlog range between $700 million and $900 million — but the push to explicitly set aside millions of dollars for repairs without specifically raising taxes has been difficult.

The $26 million sum comes from a variety of sources, including increased state shared revenues, unused funds re-allocated from a 1997 roads bond, a reduction in overall county debt leading to reduced payments, and a re-organization of the county’s street department, which laid off 36 employees earlier this year.

The layoffs were in response to the county shifting away from planning-intensive programs as the number of new construction projects has begun to dwindle.

Roughly $5 million budgeted for road repairs in the next fiscal year would come directly out of the county’s primary source of funding — property taxes — which county officials have mostly been reluctant to use.

With the county’s transportation department already funded by the state’s gas tax and vehicle license registrations, county officials have been unwilling to tap the general fund, which primarily supports most of the services provided, including law enforcement, parks and the health department.

Pima County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry wrote in a recent memo that the ability to set aside this amount of funding for pavement preservation is unprecedented in recent history.

“The magnitude of this investment is more than has been possible in the last 10 years,� wrote Huckelberry.

Pima County Supervisor Ally Miller, who has long fought to put more money into road repairs, called the decision to dedicate millions of dollars from the county’s general fund to road repairs a win.

“I think this shows that what we’ve been putting aside for roads isn’t enough — it is never enough with the problems we’ve got,� Miller said. “I’d like more — I’d like to see $50 million or $60 million.�

But how far $26 million will go largely depends on individual projects.

An undated memo, distributed to the county’s Transportation Advisory Committee, outlines the various costs of paving roads in Pima County.

The cheapest form of repair, known as a fog seal, costs about $35,200 per mile, while tearing up an old street and rebuilding it costs roughly $792,000 per mile.

The final adoption of the county budget is expected next month.