CALIFORNIA BRIEFING / SANTA ANA

Santa Ana Mayor Miguel Pulido said today that mayors from across the country have reached an agreement with key members of Congress that will likely take as much as $150 billion of the federal economic stimulus package that would have gone to states and route it directly to city governments.

In his third lobbying trip since last month, Pulido joined a score of other mayors, including L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, in Washington on Wednesday to lobby key members of Congress to give cities a share of the funding.

“We need immediate projects and local projects, and we need to be able to move quickly,” Pulido said in a phone interview from the Phoenix airport, where he was on a stopover on his way back to California.

Pulido said he and other California politicians, including the mayors of Sacramento, San Jose, San Diego and Fresno, made last-minute appeals to express concern that because of the budget mess in Sacramento, state lawmakers would use the money to balance the state budget rather than start infrastructure projects.

“The intent of this money is to stimulate the economy to create jobs, not to balance budgets,” Pulido said.

The state already has stalled projects from courthouse construction to transportation improvements, he said, and -- along with other mayors -- argues that cities are better positioned to put the federal money to good use.

“We want to make sure that the money is used for what it’s intended for, and if we can make sure we have a large share of it, and we will, we’ll make sure it is spent locally,” he said.

-- Tony Barboza