State keeping closer tabs on C-funds

The state Department of Transportation isn't clipping coupons or stocking up on canned soup to pinch pennies. Instead, in these tight budget times, the DOT is more tightly monitoring its C-fund allocations to county governments.

Cherokee County Interim Administrator Ben Clary warned council members the DOT may reduce the county's C-fund allocation if council members fail to spend their road improvement money.

Clary said it's a common practice for some council members to delay a road improvement project if there isn't enough money to complete it. But that may not be the wisest course of action anymore.

"It would behoove you to immediately assign your road projects if that takes borrowing from other districts or if it takes combining districts, you might want to do it," Clary told council members.

Clary added that a county similar in size to Cherokee had its C-fund allocation sliced in half because it failed to spend all of its road improvement funds.

Each year, the county receives about $1 million from the DOT to pave county and state roads. Council then divvies up the allocation based on the amount of road miles in each council district. C-funds are generated by the state gasoline tax.

Clary said the county has begun its road improvement projects.