California will get $51B in stimulus funds

Good news for you Cali folks. I'm a bit surprised by the 51B, I thought the fund was only 40B for all 50 states?

http://www.bizjournals.com/sacramento/stories/2009/03/09/daily10.html

It appears that California will get enough money from the $787 billion federal stimulus bill to prevent additional cuts and tax increases approved in the 2009-2010 state budget, according to a report released Monday by the nonpartisan California Budget Project.

California and its residents will receive an estimated $50.7 billion from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act signed by President Obama Feb. 17, including $18 billion in federal dollars that can be used to offset General Fund expenses, senior policy analyst Scott Graves said in a press call Monday.

Funding in the stimulus package is intended for various purposes. The new state budget specifies that additional taxes and spending cuts will take effect unless at least $10 billion comes from the feds that can be used to offset General Fund expenses.

Funding designated for California in the stimulus package includes $11.2 billion additional funding for Medi-Cal, the state health care program for the poor, Graves said. There’s also about $5 billion in educational block grants and a flexible $1.1 billion block grant that could be used to meet the $10 billion mark, he said.

“As we look at the numbers, we think where there’s a will, there’s a way,” Graves said. ‘We think we should be working together to use dollars for state relief to achieve the $10 billion (threshold).”

State Department of Finance estimates the state will fall $2 billion short, said spokesman H.D. Palmer.

Next up is a hearing on the issue March 17.

 

still 8B short...ooops

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=agWGo2ZmlbqA