Cities get less stimulus money than rural areas for roads

Cities ‘lost tug of war’

Steve Hawley, Jul 16, 09.

Cities are getting less highway stimulus funding than rural areas, according to the New York Times, even though two-thirds of the country’s population lives in large metropolitan areas. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act provided $26.6 billion in highway funds.

The Times analyzed 5,274 transportation projects approved so far, which it calls “the most complete look yet at how states plan to spend their stimulus money,” and concluded that the 100 largest metropolitan areas are receiving less than half of the transportation funds. “In many cases,” the article states, “they have lost a tug of war with state lawmakers that urban advocates say could hurt the nation’s economic engines.”

State legislators have long dictated federal transportation money, usually shortchanging cities, and the article states that “it is clear that the stimulus program will continue that pattern of spending disproportionately on rural areas.”

However, it also notes that urban areas may still receive more money:
[Metropolitan Plannning Organizations, unlike state Departments of Transportation] were not bound by the June 30 deadline for getting their projects approved, so metropolitan areas could eventually see their share of the transportation money go up. Other pots of money in the transportation bill stand to benefit metropolitan areas more, including the $8.4 billion for mass transit and the $1.5 billion that the federal Department of Transportation can award to projects of national or regional importance.

TxDOT stimulus projects
Houston-area stimulus projects

(Photo credit: dystopos)