Michigan’s share of the $787 billion American Recovery & Reinvestment Act stimulus, approved by Congress and signed into law on Feb. 17 by President Barack Obama, comes in at about $7 billion for 2009 according to some estimates.

That’s a pretty good chunk of change, according to a Moody’s economist, who said hard-hit Michigan (auto industry) New York (financial services) and Florida (housing) are at the top of the list of states when it comes to getting proportionally larger portions of the stimulus money.

According to Michigan Construction News.com, citing information from the National Conference of State Legislatures and the National Governor’s Association, some of the construction-related portion of the money breaks down like this:

$847 million for highway and bridge construction.

$279 million for “weatherization” work.

$171 million for wastewater treatment and collection system work.

$165 million for grants to mass transit systems.

$67 million for drinking water system improvements.

$43 million for public housing.

“To anyone who has an understanding of the years of under-investment in Michigan’s public works infrastructure – or any state in the union, for that matter – the sums coming our way seem pathetic,” commented Guy Snyder of Michigan Construction News.com.

To illustrate the relative size of the federal stimulus investment for construction, the biggest chunk of stimulus spending, $847 million for roads and bridges, would increase the funding level by about 26 percent over the $3.2 billion that was invested in Michigan roads in 2008. Last November , the bi-partisan Michigan Transportation Funding Task Force estimated that in order to obtain a “good” investment level in highways, roads and bridges, Michigan would need to nearly double its current annual investment to a total of $6.1 billion,

Still, the federal stimulus investment isn’t chicken feed. The Associated General Contractors of America estimated that each $1 billion in nonresidential construction spending would add about $2.3 billion to the state’s Gross Domestic Product and about $754 million to personal earnings. Each $1 billion in such construction investment, the AGC said, would also create or sustain 20,000 jobs, 6,800 of which would be on-site construction jobs within Michigan.

Citing government figures, the AGC said the construction industry in Michigan (residential plus nonresidential) employed 136,000 workers in December 2008, a decrease of 76,100 (35.8%) from June 2000 when construction employment was at its peak for recent years.

According to the labor-backed Center for American Progress, over time Michigan could get value of about $18 billion overall from the federal stimulus, including money for state government operations, increased jobless benefits and food stamps, health insurance aid for the poor and jobless and a tax cut

More than $4 billion of Michigan’s stimulus money is slated toward just two areas: Medicaid and school spending. At press time, details regarding how and when the entire stimulus package for Michigan would be divvied up were scant and confusing. It wasn’t clear whether there would be more money available for construction through areas like school work or green building. The State of Michigan late last week was working on a website to detail the stimulus spending.

The federal stimulus, said Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm, will give Michigan’s economy “the jump start it needs to create jobs for today and tomorrow while providing a safety net for our families during this national economic crisis.”