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Former Congressman Neil Abercrombie says that Hawaii still has some financial wiggle-room when it comes to federal stimulus money.

At his Ward Warehouse campaign headquarters Tuesday, Abercrombie and running-mate Brian Schatz presented their plan for a plan, aka their . The booklet highlights how the Democratic team will harness more federal dollars to create state programs without raising taxes.

“There’s at least half a billion dollars that’s allocated for Hawaii right now that hasn’t been spent yet. We intend not only to move into that area but to see to it that we set priorities which maximize utilization of it,” Abercrombie said.

Of all the people who should be aware of Hawaii’s federal stimulus standing, a twenty-year congressman seems to fit the bill. So, we put Abercrombie’s words to the test.

It appears that he’s technically correct, but there is a hole in his argument.

According to the , as of June 30, 2010, the state has been awarded $1,358,020,636 in federal stimulus funds for 170 different state entities.

Of that, Hawaii has spent $696,788,415 so far — there’s about $661,232,221 left.

So, in this sense, Abercrombie is correct. There is more than half a billion dollars left in federal stimulus funds allocated for Hawaii.

But Abercrombie implies that he and his team will have a big say in how that money is spent. Later in the press conference, Abercrombie said, “We think that by reaching out into the various areas where there are existing loan possibilities, existing stimulus money that hasn’t been utilized yet, by working in those areas, we know that we’re not only going to be able to keep the programs going that we have now, but we’re going to reprioritize in a way that meets the goals and missions that are outlined in a New Day in Hawaii.”

The fact is that the money Abercrombie wants to “utilize” has already been allocated to specific programs. Also, there are strict federal processes that must be followed in order to get the money allocated in the first place.

“The way the federal government works is, ususally, they only give you the money as you need it,” said Mark Anderson, the lead ARRA coordinator for Hawaii, who tracks stimulus money that has gone to state entities. “Let’s say you get a hundred dollar grant, they’re not going to give you a hundred dollars once they award you. They give you an award letter and then as you submit claims for payment, they’ll draw down.”

Anderson told Civil Beat that every dollar sought by a state from the federal government must go through a stringent review process. In other words, claims by Abercrombie (such as the one on page 10 of his Recovery and Reinvestment plan, “The immediate task of the next governor is to supercharge the economy.”) are entirely beholden to the bureaucratic processes in Washington.

Try as Abercrombie might, he would need wait in line with 49 other states who also hope to “supercharge” their economies.

The bigger problem he will face isn’t speeding up the spending of federal funds, it’s reappropriating hundreds of millions of dollars that are already earmarked. His comments suggest that there is half a billion dollars just waiting to be used. But it just isn’t the case.

“That money has been awarded to Hawaii specifically for the purposes of those awards,” Anderson said. “So it’s not a discretionary pot. There’s very tight oversight so every single grant award has a very specific things that the federal government is asking us to spend our money on. Our program managers present a plan, it gets approved by the federal government, and once it’s approved, they say ‘O.K., you can start spending the money’ and then as we undertake the project and need the money, we contact the federal government and they send it to us.”

Once the money is in Hawaii hands, Anderson said that the federal government asks that it be spent within three to five days, or the state will be charged interest on it.

“We’re moving as quick as we can,” Anderson said. He pointed out that compared other states, Hawaii is using the stimulus money appropriately.

Is it possible that if elected governor, Abercrombie could ask for changes in how and when federal stimulus money is directed?

Anderson said that it is. “My sense is that at this point in the stimulus spending, the plans for it has been pretty well solidified and are underway.” But, he said, “It’s not beyond the realm of possibility that a new governor could come in and review department plans for use of stimulus money and ask the federal government for changes.”

To do that, though, Abercrombie would delay the expenditure of the federal stimulus money by restarting a process that has already been essentially completed.

And that would be contrary to his agenda of supercharging.

So, is there more than half a billion dollars of unspent federal money allocated for Hawaii?

Yes.

But will Abercrombie be able to significantly speed up the spending process or affect change to where the money is used?

Probably not.