Lawmakers Question How To Use Stimulus

State officials are getting a clearer sense of how much money the federal government is sending Massachusetts in stimulus funds: it's $8.7 billion.

State officials are still trying to understand the stimulus bill. For instance, at a hearing at the State House yesterday, the state's director of infrastructure investment, Jeffrey Simon, said the Patrick administration had hoped to spend federal money to build new schools, but now it's discovering that there are no federal funds for that purpose.

"I don't think that there is in this bill anywhere that would fund the construction of an entire new school," Simon says.

Out of the $8.7 billion that Massachusetts is getting, the biggest chunk, $3.5 billion, is for safety net programs, such as extended unemployment compensation and money to pay for medical coverage for people who have lost their jobs.