ALBANY – The federal stimulus package, which has been passing billions of dollars through the states for distribution to counties, is expected to spend over $1.2 billion in the Hudson Valley, Governor David Paterson announced Monday.

Pattern for Progress President Jonathan Drapkin said the funding program should not have been called the stimulus package, but rather a stabilization program.

“The categories of spending for individuals from food stamps and unemployment, or for county governments in the areas of Medicaid and education, are really helping in the sense of stabilizing the economy, although, as we know from watching the increase in unemployment rates, they still have grown dramatically over the last 18 months, that it would have been worse had this money not been put into the economy,” he said.

The report released Monday, the day before Election Day, includes spending that is administered by the state as well as spending that flows directly from federal agencies to local governments, institutions and individuals.

Total stimulus spending by county:

Columbia:            $45.7 million
Dutchess:            $153.2 million
Greene:               $23.9 million
Orange:                $221.8 million
Putnam:               $39 million
Rockland:            $172.4 million
Sullivan:               $57.7 million
Ulster:                  $103.6 million
Westchester:     $552 million