Utah's share of stimulus: $4 billion

Utah officials said Wednesday that the economic stimulus package from Congress will flood Utah with about $4 billion total over the next few years.

For comparison, that is about twice the cost of the new City Creek Center being built in downtown Salt Lake City. It is also about 20 times larger than the annual budget of Salt Lake City.

John Nixon, director of the Governor's Office of Planning and Budget, told the Legislature that state agencies have been awarded about $1.3 billion in stimulus funding so far, and they expect to eventually be awarded a total of $1.7 billion.

"That's federal money that's coming into the state through grants, general stabilization, (and) education stabilization," he told the Interim Committee on Government Operations and Political Subdivisions.

"We're also anticipating about $2 billion that's going to be coming into the state through tax cuts," he said, noting employers are withholding fewer payroll taxes because of that. "You should be getting a few extra bucks in your paycheck every time you are paid. … So that money's coming into the Utah economy and will help stimulate growth."

Also, he said about $624 million in stimulus money has been awarded to Utah entities other than state agencies.

He summed up, "We anticipate … about $4 billion" from the stimulus in Utah.

So far, he said, about $350 million has actually been spent at the state level out of the $1.3 billion awarded to state agencies. "The money is awarded for two- to five-year projects" and will be spent over that time, he noted. "Utah is doing a better job than most states in getting the money obligated and spent."

He said the state plans to have an Internet site listing all its spending by next month and must provide an initial report to the federal government on the status of its use of such funds by Oct. 10.

Mike Mower, state planning coordinator, gave the committee long lists of different types of money coming from the stimulus, and projects funded by them so far.

The lists showed 49 different state programs are receiving stimulus money, ranging from nearly $393 million to help stabilize education funding to $125 million to help with Medicaid and $213 million for transportation projects.