Cities push for revised road funding (High Point Enterprise)
Local governments argue the Triad is getting shortchanged when it comes to large transportation projects because of the state’s funding method.
The city councils for High Point and Thomasville are among the bodies that have passed a resolution in support of evaluating and revising the state’s transportation equity formula. Since 1989, the equity formula has been used to distribute transportation money among the Department of Transportation’s 14 operations divisions.
The resolution, also adopted by the High Point Metropolitan Planning Organization, supports the efforts of the N.C. Metropolitan Mayors Coalition in asking the N.C. General Assembly to re-evaluate, revise and modify the formula, which was created with the goal of ensuring equitable distribution of funds across the state.
“Over the past 20 years, the equity formula has become an impediment to effective transportation decision-making,” said High Point Mayor Becky Smothers. “Major projects like bridges and interstates are just so expensive, and the way money is distributed now just won’t cover them.”
She and others argue the formula is antiquated because it was developed at a time when the state was largely rural, and a majority of residents lived outside cities and towns. They point out that the state has become more urban in the past 20 years — with three large and eight smaller metropolitan regions — and claim the equity formula does not take into consideration factors such as traffic volume and air-quality issues in allocating funds.
Those who advocate revising the formula claim it makes it difficult to fund major projects like the proposed replacement of the Interstate 85 bridge over the Yadkin River — a potential $450 million project that would entail replacing the 55-year-old bridge between Rowan and Davidson counties and widening a 6.8-mile section of interstate.
“This project alone would take every construction dollar out of (the local DOT division) for the next 10 years,” said Thomasville City Councilman Neal Grimes, that city’s representative on the High Point MPO. “That’s not very equitable.”
Transportation officials agree the project is critically needed, but there has been little consensus about how to pay for it. Discussions about making it a toll project went nowhere. Gov. Bev Perdue’s administration has sought stimulus funding for the project from the Obama administration.
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Proposal
The resolution calls for a study of the transportation equity formula by a state legislative study commission. The N.C. Metropolitan Mayors Coalition argues the need for action is at a critical point because state investments in transportation have not met demand as transportation funding sources — the gas and car sales taxes and federal aid — have stagnated or declined.
According to the coalition, the state has a growing backlog of renovation projects for roads and bridges, which has led the American Society of Civil Engineers to grade North Carolina’s roads a D and bridges a C-minus.
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Jan, 05, 2010 11:03 PM
