New York, California, Texas and other big states would be the top beneficiaries of President Barack Obama’s $819-billion economic stimulus package, approved by the U.S. House.

In all, 18 states probably would land more than $10 billion each in spending and tax cuts, according to the Center for American Progress, a public policy group in Washington that studied how the stimulus is likely to be distributed.

California tops the list with about $63 billion in new funding, or more than $1,700 per person. New York stands to come in second with roughly $41 billion – more than $2,000 per person.

Other big stimulus sweepstakes winners include Florida, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Michigan.

On a per-capita basis, some states with smaller populations would fare best because of federal funding formulas that guide such items as transportation spending. Alaska, for example, would collect about $2,600 per person.

Wednesday’s 244-188 House vote sends the measure to the Senate. The House bill would give half that money to states with the highest projected unemployment, including New York, California, Rhode Island, Florida, Nevada and Michigan.

The Senate legislation would distribute the money more evenly, sending 80 percent of it to all 50 states and 20 percent to those hardest hit.

About two-thirds of the package will be distributed to states and localities according to federal spending formulas, as in the case of highway funding, or according to need, as with Medicare. That approach so far has limited the political horse-trading that usually accompanies big spending bills.

House Republicans, none of whom voted for the measure, cautioned that projections of state windfalls are premature.

The House, the Senate and the Obama administration each have different state and local funding formulas for road spending “At this point it is really premature to give accurate estimates to the states,” said a GOP spokeswoman for the House Appropriations Committee.

(Source: Newsweek)