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WASHINGTON - Gov. Bev Perdue visited members of Congress and President-elect Barack Obama's transition team Wednesday in hopes of winning federal money for North Carolina.

Obama has been lobbying Congress for a stimulus package that could be as large as $775 billion. Some part of that will go to roads, water lines and other projects to be built by states and local governments.

Perdue, who like Obama is a Democrat, used her trip to the Capitol to urge lawmakers to back the bill and press North Carolina's case for a fair share of the funding to officials with the administration in waiting.

She took with her a one-page summary of the types of projects the state had ready. Although it lacked details - saying only that $5.1 billion in highway projects was ready to go - Perdue said her list was a realistic expectation of what could be done quickly.

"My criteria was, don't give me people's wish lists. I want projects that are shovel-ready," she said. "I think the president-elect's team and the president-elect himself understand this is critical money."

Virtually every state is experiencing some type of budget deficit because of the slowing economy, which has decreased tax revenues at a time when demand for government services has grown. In North Carolina's case, that gap could be as large as $2.2 billion, Perdue said, or roughly 10 percent of the state's budget.

Aside from construction projects, Perdue said the federal government could help "stem the bleed" in state budgets by bolstering funding for Medicaid, the health insurance program for the poor. States and the federal government share the cost of running the program, which is likely to experience higher demand as more people lose their jobs and the employer-based health insurance that goes with them.

"Additional (federal) funds would ameliorate the need to make draconian reductions that ultimately impact our ability to provide quality services to our citizens," read a line from Perdue's handout.

Perdue did not specify what those cuts might look like, although Lanier Cansler, the new N.C. Health and Human Services secretary, told a legislative oversight committee that his department was deciding on recommendations for cuts.

David Kochman, an adviser to Perdue, said the governor had not identified specific cuts but they "would become necessary with such a sharp rise in need coupled with a decline in revenue."

Besides state needs, Perdue also gave lawmakers a sense of projects other levels of government could get started on right away. They included $3.5 billion from county governments, $2.8 billion from cities and $1.1 billion from the state's school systems.

Emily Stephenson reported from the Scripps Howard Foundation Wire office in Washington.

Contact Mark Binker at (919) 832-5549 or mark.binker@news-record.com