Unused phone lines cost taxpayers $1.5M

LOS ANGELES According to the L.A. Times, and auditors' review found that the county has 8,000 phone lines that never ring.

For example, no one ever canceled the 329 phone lines at Martin Luther King Jr.-Harbor Hospital when it was downgraded to an outpatient clinic in August 2007.

Auditors found one line that was actually registered to a Hollywood ticket broker that is now out of business. That line cost taxpayers $38 a month for 14 years.

Auditors said they could find up to 16,000 abandoned county phone lines when their review is complete. The cost for those lines could reach $3 million a year.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

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