Advocates of change — including a coalition of urban mayors — contend the existing formula diverts too much money to sparsely populated areas. They contend the state needs to spend more of its transportation dollars in high-population areas where traffic congestion is the worst.

Others, including Beaufort County leaders and economic developers, assert that diverting desperately needed money from the state’s poorer, less-populated regions would hurt economic development in areas that need it the most.

Still others believe a complete overhaul of North Carolina’s transportation priorities and related funding is needed to address 21st-century transportation needs.

On Tuesday, a House and Senate committee that oversees transportation issues heard ideas from civic and political leaders about possible changes to a two-decades-old road construction-funding formula, known as the “Equity Formula.” That formula dictates the way road-construction dollars are spent in North Carolina. It was adopted in 1989 as part of legislation that established the Highway Trust Fund.

The 1989 Highway Trust Fund legislation divided the state into seven regions and, under the Equity Formula, a portion of road construction money is evenly divided among these seven regions, regardless of population. The formula does not apply to public-transportation investments, the urban-loop program or routine maintenance.

A co-chairman of the study committee said in an earlier interview with the Daily News that he doesn’t expect the committee to make recommendations on the proposed changes this year.

“This will be a very measured approach because we understand the long-term implications for every county in the state,” said Sen. Steve Goss, D-Watauga, co-chairman of the Joint Legislative Transportation Oversight Committee. “We’ve got to protect the rural and small-town areas of the state.”

Goss said that any bill proposed by the committee likely will not be presented during the upcoming General Assembly’s short session, but it will instead be tackled during the long session in 2011.

Beaufort County leaders are wary of any changes in the Equity Formula and existing funding system.

In March, the Beaufort County Board of Commissioners unanimously approved a resolution, presented by Commissioner Robert Cayton, opposing efforts to revise the Equity Formula.

“We must oppose the reformulation or we are going to be back to dirt roads,” Cayton said at the time.

Beaufort County’s representatives to the N.C. General Assembly agree.

“It would be horrible,” said Rep. Arthur Williams, D-Beaufort, in a recent interview. He pledged to “stand in the way” of any changes to the existing formula. Williams is an advisory member of the subcommittee that is considering the change and vice chairman of the House Transportation Committee that could receive any legislation recommended by the study commission.

Senate leader Marc Basnight, D-Dare, who represents Beaufort County in the state Senate, also supports the current Equity Formula.

“Sen. Basnight believes the Equity Formula is serving our state well, “ said Shorr Johnson, a spokesman for Basnight, in a recent interview. “While a study of the equity formula is appropriate, without it rural North Carolina would not be getting it fair share of funds for road construction, replacing aging bridges and growing the economy.”

High Point Mayor Becky Smothers said the intent of changes in the Equity Formula proposed by urban mayors is not to penalize the state’s rural areas but to speed up much-needed road construction across the state.

“I think the major evidence that there does need to be reform is that there are projects on the books that need to be completed that haven’t even begun,” she said in a recent interview. “Nobody’s trying to punish anyone.”

Smothers oversees transportation issues for the N.C. Metropolitan Mayors Association. That group is advocating not only for a change in the Equity Formula but also for other changes — such as a reworking of N.C. Department of Transportation districts to more accurately reflect transportation patterns.

Each funding region under the Equity Formula is made up of two of the long-standing state highway divisions that were intended to match DOT’s maintenance operations to the Department of Correction’s administrative system that existed 50 years ago. In today’s North Carolina, such regional boundaries have little to do with commuting patterns, air-quality planning or modern patterns of commerce, Smothers said.

As an example, she pointed to Wake, Durham, Orange, Chatham and Johnson counties — five counties that have closely linked transportation patterns but are found in four different funding regions.

Another advocate of change said the solution lies in giving local governments more responsibility for transportation needs, relieving some of the state government’s burdens.

“We can start now with counties adopting responsibility for construction and improvement of secondary roads,” said Stephen Jackson of the N.C. Justice Center’s Budget and Tax Center.

Jackson was one of those who testified before the legislative study committee Tuesday. He said that North Carolina should give counties and municipalities new revenue powers, which could include a local gas tax, vehicle utility fees or transportation impact fees.

Meanwhile, one eastern North Carolina transportation advocate said the answer to the state’s transportation woes isn’t to pit one region of the state against another in a fight for scarce funding dollars but to find a long-term solution to paying for the increasing costs of new roads.

“There is a dwindling pot of money anyway. Without the Equity Formula, the rural western and eastern parts of the state will fall further behind,” said Marc Finlayson with the Highway 17 Association. “Ultimately, we need to find long-term funding and stop trying to rob one region to pay for the road for another region.”