RALEIGH, N.C. -- Elected officials and transportation boosters are getting their say before North Carolina lawmakers over whether they should change the state's often-maligned formula for road-building dollars.
The Legislature's transportation oversight committee scheduled for Tuesday a public hearing on the Department of Transportation's so-called equity formula. It's been used for more than two decades to distribute state money in seven transportation districts.
Urban areas argue the formula takes too little into account congestion and population when handing out money. Other county and local transportation leaders say the formula makes it hard to build expensive projects because it siphons money from other worthy projects in the district.
Smaller, rural counties generally have benefited from the current formula.
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