USA Today: Florida is country's biggest loser in stimulus benefits

A USA Today analysis singles out Florida as the biggest loser in the federal stimulus rollout. Despite having the fifth-highest unemployment in the country, Florida ranked last in the country in stimulus benefits per resident.

Florida received the lowest per-capita payout in the country, the paper reported. Florida, which has a jobless rate of 11.4 percent, received $1,262 per capita in stimulus benefits.

Overall, there was little correlation between stimulus aid and unemployment suffered by individual states, the analysis showed. North Dakota, which has the country's lowest jobless rate of 3.6 percent, was fourth in stimulus benefits. Alaska, with a jobless rate below the national average of 9.5 percent, was the top winner in the stimulus sweepstakes: $3,505 per person.

The analysis included three parts of the stimulus program: government spending, tax breaks and cash benefits such as unemployment payouts. The paper concluded that stimulus benefits are skewed to better-off states because federal spending formulas are tied to such criteria as income, population density, and highway fatalities — but not unemployment rates.