RALEIGH - City leaders are howling that the state has doled out only a pittance of state road money to the Capital City, and they plan to push for an audit to make sure Raleigh gets its fair share.

A draft of the state's Transportation Improvement Program skips over Raleigh's top 10 projects, including the new eastern portion of Interstate 540, or the Eastern Wake Expressway.

The plan, which spans 2007 to 2013, covers only environmental studies for Raleigh roads, and it includes no money for any of the city's pedestrian or bicycle projects.

"Shortchanged is an understatement," said Mayor Charles Meeker. "How can it be that we pay all this money [in taxes] and get nothing?"

The state's annual plan covers billions of dollars for all things highway, from pavement to guardrails to flowers in the median.

The only major construction project in Raleigh with state money this year is a $28 million plan to upgrade the city's traffic signal system, Meeker said, and Raleigh is paying about $7 million of that project. Another project on the state's list is the widening of Falls of the Neuse Road, and Meeker said all of that $18 million comes from a combination of $5 million from the city and federal money routed through the state.

Department of Transportation officials could not be reached Tuesday.

The City Council's Public Works Committee rearranged its priority list Tuesday and put the eastern leg of I-540 at the top.

That highway, which would run south of the U.S. 64 bypass, is in an area being eyed for development, including several Wake County schools.

While the Eastern Wake Expressway goes without funding even for an initial environmental study, the city is left in limbo and can't plan for subdivisions or other development in the area.

"That's really the worst of all worlds for everyone," said council member Tommy Craven. "Property owners don't know where it's going."

The state divvies up transportation money based on a formula that has historically excluded big cities, said council member Jessie Taliaferro.

Rural counties lack a large home city to help build roads, the thinking goes, so they tend to get more help.

But Raleigh seems to get left out, Taliaferro said, even by that calculation. "Even under the unfair formula," she asked, "are we getting our fair share?"

The city has been frustrated for years over the lack of state funding, passing its own road bonds to improve state roads, including a $60 million measure last year.

Other Wake towns fare just as badly, Meeker said, and their suffering will continue.

He said Raleigh and the Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization, which is made up of the county's towns and cities, should press the state auditor to look at the numbers.

Other Raleigh roads left off the TIP list are the Skycrest Drive extension from New Hope Road to I-540 and T.W. Alexander Drive from U.S. 70 to Leesville Road.

By shifting Raleigh's priorities, the city hopes that its projects will capture money that falls through on other projects, or as the TIP list gets adjusted year to year.

The council committee also moved two pedestrian improvement projects on Six Forks Road and Capital Boulevard to the top of its list.

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