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Hawaii’s announcement of $1.3 billion in new bond money will mean state projects can move forward and that will create jobs, Gov. Neil Abercrombie said Thursday.

“This will take unemployment checks and turn them into paychecks,” Abercrombie said at a press conference announcing the bond sale — the largest in state history.

Abercrombie had made “New Day Works Projects” a centerpiece of his State of the State speech, calling spending on capital projects a central part of his economic strategy that would “directly attack unemployment and jumpstart business activity.”

Five months after the governor signed off on a nearly $2 billion budget for capital projects, less than half the money has been authorized. And only 3 percent of the funds have actually been spent as of this month.

But, that will change in light of the bond sale.

“There will be no lack of candidates for this money,” Abercrombie said. “And that is a happy occasion.”

Even before the bond sale, the Abercrombie administration authorized 43 percent of the by lawmakers for the fiscal year that began July 1. That amounts to $794 million for 64 projects. But only $57 million of that amount has actually been spent, according to Luis Salaveria, deputy director of the state Department of Budget and Finance.

All of the projects approved to date will be funded from the state’s bond pool since it previously had not issued new general obligation bonds .

The state sells bonds to refill its bond pool from which it funds capital projects. “It would be disadvantageous to go out for new bonds every time a project gets appropriated … (and) it wouldn’t make sense for us to maintain bond proceeds for projects that, although appropriated, may not necessarily get executed quickly,” Salaveria explained.

The state announced in August that it would hold off on issuing new debt to save $10 million in interest payments for the current fiscal year. Budget Director Kalbert Young had said at the time that the move would only result in a one-time savings because the state planned to issue bonds before December.

Projects Still Moving Ahead

Salaveria said that while only $57 million has been spent, projects are still moving forward, including work from previous fiscal years.

“The typical nature of construction project expenditures are based on progress payments, so contracts need to be signed before any work starts, and that’s where a lot of the effort is now,” he said in an email to Civil Beat. “It should also be noted that these figures are expenditures for projects approved in 2011; other prior year projects are still on-going.”

Of the money already approved, a huge chunk went into a “facilities improvement” fund for public schools. A total of $539.8 million — or 68 percent of the monies spent — went to the Department of Education alone for its The fund is intended to pay for planning, design, land acquisition, construction and equipment for public school facilities.

The next biggest category that’s been approved is $44.4 million for improvements and deferred maintenance across the University of Hawaii campuses. Lawmakers had initially appropriated $50 million for the work.

The public university system also got $28.3 million to bring existing facilities in line with health and safety requirements, or for new construction and equipment to meet health and safety codes.

UH got another $17 million approved for a new Education and Innovation facility to be built on the Leeward Community College campus.

The state also has approved $26 million for an affordable senior housing project near Chinatown Honolulu. The complex is being developed by the nonprofit Pacific Housing Assistance Corp. on state-owned land leased from the state’s Hawaii Housing Finance and Development Corp. The state entity falls under the Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism.

The state also transferred $30 million in general obligation bond financing to the trust fund for homestead leases for Native Hawaiians.

The money was moved into the Hawaiian Home Lands Trust Fund to satisfy claims over thousands of acres of Hawaiian home lands that were “used, disposed of, or withdrawn from the trust” in violation of the . The capital budget explained that the money was to “satisfy the provisions of ,” which was passed in 1995.

64 Projects Approved So Far

Here’s a breakdown by department of the CIP projects approved so far, according to the Department of Budget and Finance. The $539.8 million that went into the Department of Education’s facilities fund is reflected under the Department of Budget and Finance’s amount, as is the $30 million for the Hawaiian Home Lands Trust.