As city commissioners continue to have discussions about rearranging budget priorities, there are new numbers about an old subject at Lawrence City Hall: street maintenance.

The latest numbers from the city’s public works department show the amount of money budgeted for contracted street maintenance — items like repaving and curb and gutter repair — is expected to decline by about 30 percent in 2015.

Public works leaders are blaming the drop in funding on increased demand for city funding.

“It is the same pot of money but more competition,” said Chuck Soules, the city’s director of public works.

The latest calculations show the city will have about $2.81 million to spend in 2015 for contracted street maintenance, which is work that is done by hired crews, as opposed to the smaller projects that are done by city employees. That’s down from about $4.1 million that was available for contracted street maintenance in 2014.

Soules said the $2.8 million number is similar to the amount of funding his department had in the mid-2000s.

“We’re definitely making progress on streets,” Soules said. “But if we only fund it like we did back in the early 2000s, it will catch up with us.”

Voters in 2008 approved a sales tax that is devoted to street projects and other infrastructure needs in the city. The city is spending more dollars on street projects today than it was prior to the approval of the sales tax. But city officials say it is important to note the distinction between spending money on rebuilding streets versus spending money on maintaining streets.

During the 2008 sales tax election, it was envisioned that a large portion of the new tax dollars would go to rebuilding streets that had fallen into a state of disrepair that routine maintenance was no longer effective. The city has spent millions of dollars on such projects, including several projects on Kasold, Iowa, Wakarusa and other major streets. But during the campaign it also was envisioned that spending on routine street maintenance would hold steady or increase slightly.

The 30 percent drop in the contracted street maintenance is an issue to keep an eye on in the future, said City Commissioner Jeremy Farmer — who, if tradition holds, is set to become mayor later this month.

“Anything is going to be more expensive if we’re trying to play catch-up,” Farmer said. “It is a matter or resources, but I know we can’t fall behind again.”

Farmer said he expects the new commission — which will be seated on April 14 — to look at a host of issues and determine how well budget priorities are matching up with the public’s views.

“I think there will be big conversations in the community about what the expectations are and how we’re living up to them,” Farmer said.

Some of that talk already has begun. Commissioners and candidates have talked about the desire to build a new police headquarters project without raising taxes. But a new report from City Hall said several projects would have to be delayed to accomplish a headquarters project without a tax increase.

Soules said his department in the coming weeks also will be keeping a close eye on construction bids. He said early numbers show the price of road construction, such as repaving, is increasing. He said the department may have to recommend a reduction in the amount of maintenance work planned for 2015 if construction prices continue to rise.

The contracted street maintenance is just one portion of the city’s street maintenance program, but it is the largest portion. City crews also do some in-house work. The level of in-house work has grown in recent years, but Soules said not enough to make up for the decrease in funding for contracted street maintenance.

“The city is still expanding some,” Soules said. “We haven’t gotten to all the streets that we need to yet.”