Stimulus spending favors rural counties

North Carolina's stimulus checkbook shows that rural counties have benefited more than urban counties on a per-person basis, with Wake and other populous counties getting less than an average share.

Federal funds allocated through June 30 under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act add up to $328 for every state resident, Bruce Siceloff and Steve Harrison report. The per-person share falls to $284 in Wake County and $252 in Durham County.

One urban county doing very well so far is Cumberland County, home to Fayetteville and Fort Bragg. The Department of Defense has poured money into the Army base, pushing Cumberland's per-person total to $816.

Many of the stimulus dollars are distributed by existing state formulas that favor rural over urban counties, and money is going to programs that focus on certain parts of the state.

"The Department of the Interior is spending money in the mountains and in the coasts," said Dempsey Benton, who oversees stimulus spending in the state. "That's not going to help the Mecklenburgs and the Guilfords."

Benton heads the N.C. Office of Economic Recovery and Investment, which recently released a county-by-county breakdown of stimulus funding. North Carolina has been allocated $3.2 billion through June 30 and has spent $1.3 billion.