The city of Lawrence would be wise not to skimp on street maintenance.

Last week, city officials warned that current funding levels for the city’s street maintenance program mean some residential streets in need of maintenance could go unattended. Public Works Director Chuck Soules said the problem is that major reconstruction projects on several city roadways and intersections have absorbed most of the city funding for street work.

Delaying maintenance to address larger projects has become a trend. Approximately $3 million has been budgeted for street maintenance the past two years. That’s half of what the street maintenance program was expected to receive annually when it was created in 2005.

The numbers go against the grain of what was promised to voters when they approved a 0.3 percent infrastructure sales tax in 2008. Leaders said sales tax dollars would be used to enhance, not supplant, street maintenance funds.

The reality is that the city has been reducing funding for maintenance for several years. In 2008, before the infrastructure sales tax was in effect, the street maintenance program was allocated $4.8 million. Funding levels subsequently increased — $5.7 million was allocated in 2012 — but have since dropped off. This year, $2.9 million is budgeted for street maintenance, which is essentially flat to the $2.8 million budgeted last year.

Street maintenance includes crack sealing, patching, repaving, and curb and gutter repair as well as infrastructure for bicyclists and pedestrians. Such maintenance is key to road conditions.

City Commissioner Mike Amyx defended the city’s approach toward street maintenance. He said projects like the $5.4 million reconstruction of a portion of Kasold Drive affect a significant number of motorists and should be considered part of maintenance.

“There’s probably a lot that we can do (in residential areas), but when you consider the amount of traffic that that one street is carrying, it’s obviously something that’s been put off for a while and needs to be done,” Amyx said. “Here again, it’s that balance between maintenance being done on a regular basis and things that have to wait for a bit because we’re rebuilding, using a lot of dollars on one particular street.”

The city’s Pavement Condition Index, a routine survey of the condition of the city’s streets, indicates the vast majority of the city’s pavement is currently rated 70 or above on a scale of 1 to 100.

But it should be noted there has been a decrease in the pavement condition in the past two index cycles when the index dropped from 75.54 to 73.73. The decline is a warning for the city not to neglect street maintenance. Doing so could prove costly in the long run.