Some governors might reject stimulus package funds

USA Today - By Matt Kelley, USA TODAY - Feb. 18, 2009

WASHINGTON — Although President Obama's stimulus package provides about $144 billion directly to state and local governments, a few Republican governors are suggesting they might reject some of the money.
No state has yet refused any of the funding from the $787 billion stimulus package, which Obama signed into law on Tuesday. But Republican governors, including those in South Carolina, Texas, Louisiana and Alaska, have said they are looking closely at the strings attached to the federal funding before they decide what to do with it.
Two of their concerns: The restrictions on some of the money could further crimp state budgets, and programs created or expanded with stimulus funds may have to be cut once the stimulus funds are depleted.
"You get this huge slug of money. It funds programs for a couple of years, and then what?" says South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, who heads the Republican Governors Association. "You get it started, you get a constituency established, and then we're supposed to yank the rug out from under people when the federal money runs out?" (continues...)