Broadcast by: NBC-6 WTVJ Miami

Posted: 2/23/09

MIAMI - While Governor Charlie Crist meets with the president to discuss how much money Florida will get from the economic stimulus plan, local and county officials are figuring out how they'll spend it.

The Greater Miami Chamber's Transportation and Infrastructure Committee will meet Monday to discuss the summary of projects recommended by the MPO for funding through the federal stimulus package. Other advisory panels have already met and they will make their recommendations on spending.

Some local leaders think that money from the $787 billion stimulus package should be used to build the tunnel from McArthur Causeway to the Port of Miami.Schools and the construction industry are expected to get millions of dollars from the plan and transportation projects across the region will benefit.

One idea is to extend mass transit from downtown Miami to the new baseball stadium.

Like many mayors, Miami Mayor Manny Diaz wants a big portion of the money to benefit improvements in his city.

"There's no question that we are looking at millions of jobs in the country and certainly hundreds of thousands of jobs locally," he said.

Approximately 207,000 jobs is expected to be created in Florida and more than 62,000 jobs alone in South Florida.

There has not been much support from Republicans for Obama's stimulus plan, but Gov. Crist is backing in. On "Meet the Press" Sunday he said politics should not stand in the way of the president's plan to jumpstart the U.S. economy.

"I think he's on the right track," Crist said. "I don’t think anybody says this is a perfect bill. I don't think even president Obama says that. We are at a time of need and to do nothing certainly is not acceptable. We're not perfect but we have to do something to try to get our country back on track."

Crist said that about $12 billion will flow into Florida, with $261 million for Miami-Dade and about $70 million for Broward.

Diaz said money from the package will not be used to help build the baseball stadium.

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