Spending in Utah from President Barack Obama's economic stimulus bill has topped $2.3 billion as of September, with major portions of the cash targeting public education, roads, and help for the impoverished and the unemployed.

With a staggering $260 billion of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act money spent so far, Utah's per-capita share of stimulus funds appears to match the national per-capita share, at $857 per resident, according to data compiled by the nonprofit investigative journalism Web site ProPublica.org.

The ProPublica data include spending reported by U.S. government agencies and by stimulus recipients and their subcontractors, providing one of the most complete snapshots of the economic-recovery measure's impact to date.

Salt Lake County has received nearly half of Utah's total at $1.1 billion, the data shows -- but that figure is inflated by the county being home to numerous state agency headquarters, which are in turn funneling stimulus cash to hundreds of cities, counties, school districts, road departments and housing agencies across the state.

While more spending has flowed to higher population areas in Utah, there are notable exceptions.

Grand County has seen $11,875 spent per resident from the stimulus, the state's highest per-capita rate, thanks to about $104 million from the Department of Energy to remove uranium tailings from the old Atlas Minerals site outside Moab.

Thinly populated Daggett County's per-resident spending is high too, at $5,535 for each of its 938 residents, because of a $5 million Bureau of Reclamation pipeline project.

At least $594 million in stimulus has gone to Utah's public schools, colleges and universities, through various arms of the U.S. Department of Education.

The University of Utah has taken in at least $44 million so far. Brigham Young University has received about $13.8 million; Utah State University, about $13.7 million; Utah Valley University, $8.2 million; and Southern Utah University, about $3.2 million. The stimulus has pumped millions more cash into Utah's community colleges and for-profit schools as well, through Pell grants.

Granite School District, the state's largest, has received $36 million for elementary and secondary programs, $14 million for special education services and $9.7 million for improvement of its Title I programs, targeting at-risk students. The Jordan School District is building a new school entirely with stimulus money.

The new $8 million Jordan Resource Center is set to open in South Jordan in August 2011, said district spokeswoman Melinda Colton. To be located next to Valley High School at 325 W. 11000 South in South Jordan, the center will house various programs for special-needs students.

"A building is a perfect thing to spend this money on," she said, ``because whatever we get now isn't always going to be there in future years.''

All school spending of stimulus money is being reviewed by the state Office of Education through an application process to ensure proper use of one-time money, said Todd Haber, associate superintendent for business services. "That's so we don't all have a heart attack when the money dries up."

Between highway projects and improvements in public transit, Utah has received $384 million for transportation, including major upgrades to light rail and Interstate 15.

Not all the stimulus spending has gone to the public sector. Fully 856 private businesses in Utah have received Small Business Administration loans under the bill, ranging in amounts from $12,500 to $2.7 million. Much of the $164 million total in SBA cash has targeted businesses unable to secure traditional bank loans because of the credit crunch.

Massive amounts of stimulus cash have also gone to help those hit hardest by the recession.

At least $161 million went to Medicaid, the state-run health care program for the disadvantaged, about $297 million in housing assistance and another $51 million for food stamps and other supplement nutritional aid programs.

The state has received at least $72 million to increase and extend benefits to jobless residents, allowing them to collect unemployment assistance for up to 73 weeks, as opposed to the 26 weeks of benefits provided under state law.

While Utah's unemployment rate, pegged at 6.5 percent in October, has hovered well below the national rate of 10.2 percent, the state still has qualified for additional emergency benefits for the unemployed.

About $7 of every $10 in stimulus coming to Utah has been in the form of a grant, as opposed to loans or contracts. State officials are going to great lengths to avoid what one official called "the funding cliff" when stimulus cash ends in 2011.

Gov. Gary Herbert's latest budget plan has tried to anticipate the effects of these millions going away, especially when it comes to public education, according to John Nixon, Herbert's state budget director.

While about $293 million in stimulus went to reducing cuts for public schools last year, budget planners have tried to use the federal cushion this year to minimize use of the state's rainy day fund, Nixon said. That $253 million fund, combined with an anticipated economic recovery, will help Utah transition once the stimulus stops, he said.

"The way we've set this up," Nixon said Monday, "we're in a strong position for dealing with any future shortfall."

tsemerad@sltrib.com