Roads Study Generates Media Interest

This week’s release by JLF of a study showing that North Carolina misspent billions on roads of questionable value between 1990 and 2003 lit a fire under news organizations. An Associated Press story ran in numerous papers statewide and included comments from study author David Hartgen of UNC-Charlotte. Hartgen concluded that if the $2.5 billion had been used for repairs to the state’s deteriorating roads instead, the state’s highway maintenance budget could have been 40 percent higher without raising taxes. Stories also ran in the Charlotte Observer and The Daily Tar Heel, and on the North Carolina News Network and WBT-AM in Charlotte. “We need to spend our highway dollars more wisely, not ask our taxpayers for more of their money,” Hartgen said in the press release announcing the report’s release. “North Carolina no longer has the luxury of distributing road funds without regard to need.” To read the report, visit JLF.