The Utah Department of Transportation shortchanged some cities and counties — and gave others too much — as it spread their shares of state road funds because it used outdated Census numbers when it calculated the distributions.
State Auditor John Dougall issued that finding on Thursday, and UDOT agreed to make things right.
The miscalculations were fairly minor, Dougall said.
“In their next distribution, they will start to remedy the past error,” he added. “So if you got too much this time, you will get a little less moving forward. If you got too little, they will boost you up to fix the error.”
State auditors wrote that UDOT “used 2015 and 2016 census data instead of 2016 and 2017 census data available at the time of the calculations. The use of outdated census data could and did result in under and over allocations to counties and municipalities during the year.”
UDOT wrote in response that it agreed with the finding, and “will apply the most recent census data as required by statue. We will also make the appropriate adjustments to the next distribution.”
Lee has worked at The Tribune since 2011. He previously was a reporter for 28 years at the Deseret News, including 18 years as its Washington, D.C., correspondent. He covers politics, transportation and demographics.