DaytonDailyNews.com

Washington — By most measures, the $787 billion economic stimulus bill that President Barack Obama signed into law in February appears to be positively flying into the hands of state and local governments.

Each week, the administration announces new formulas and new releases of funds, followed by a flurry of press releases from congressional offices touting the newest stimulus dollars in your neighborhood. According to those releases, the state has been approved for money for dilapidated National Guard armories, for hospitals to treat vulnerable populations and to spruce up crumbling highways.

For a federal bureaucracy, it's as close to lightning-speed as it gets.

But what the state actually has in hand is far less than what the press releases suggest.

So far, the state has received just a fraction of the funds it's been notified that it will receive. The money it has received includes a little more than $388 million for Medicaid and a few million dollars for food for Ohio's aging population.

"It's out there," promises Dennis Evans of the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, who said the state has been notified it will receive $298 million more in the months to come. "It all depends on when the feds start laying it out there for everyone."

In some cases, the grant process is all that's keeping the money from flowing. Communities getting grants on a formula basis have often been notified of their share of specific programs, but have to apply to get the funds. That's the case with the Edward Byrne Justice Assistance Grants. When doled out, those will give $61.6 million to the state.

In the case of the federal highway transportation funds allocated this week, much of the money has to go through the state budget process before it can be spent. The state will pay for the projects and then be reimbursed by the federal government.

"Obviously our goal is getting this money invested in the economy as soon as possible," said Amanda Wurst, a spokeswoman for Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland.

Described as a short-term shot of cash, the money will actually be sent out over the next two to three years, going through some 24 state agencies and, in some cases, going directly to counties and cities.

The state announced earlier this month that it would receive $8.5 million for the Ohio National Guard — money to repair and update antiquated armories, including updating plumbing in Middletown.

Mark Wayda, a spokesman for the Guard, said it expects to receive the wire transfer "within the next couple of weeks."

"There's no date certain," he said.

That they have to wait for a few more weeks, he said, is nothing – the Guard has been wanting to do these repairs for years.

"This money will give us the opportunity to fix a lot of things that have been broken that we have just not been able to get to," he said.