SPRINGFIELD -- Call it a stimulus setback for the city of Springfield.

The federal government released nearly $20 million dollars in economic stimulus money for Missouri Tuesday  to hire police.  But the Queen City got completely shut out.

Back in April, the Springfield police department applied for $4 million dollars in grants.  On Tuesday, they got the bad news.

Of the $19.7 million dollars coming to the Show-Me State, Springfield is getting nothing.

"We got shut out," said city manager Greg Burris.  "We applied for 25 officers and we were notified today we got zero."

More than 7,000 law enforcement agencies from around the country applied for about $1 billion dollars.  In Missouri, a total of 242 jurisdictions applied, but just 14 received funds.  And most of them are clustered near the two largest cities. 

It adds up to 115 new officers for the St. Louis and Kansas City metropolitan areas, and just 3 new officers for the rest of the state.

"It's hard to tell whether it's fair because the Department of Justice didn't give you much detail in the formula that's used to rank the cities," said Burris.

The federal formula was based half on fiscal need and half on crime and planned community policing.  The Kansas City and St. Louis departments scored highest, each winning enough money to employ an additional 50 officers.

The top scoring department in the Ozarks was Hollister, which finished 12th.  That was enough to net one new officer.

Springfield's scoring placed them 23rd.  Read the entire report on where the money went HERE.

"We ranked pretty high in terms of almost getting some officers, but they only awarded police officers to the top 14," Burris said.

The city always knew the grants would be highly competitive.  In March, Chief Lynn Rowe spoke about the rush to apply.

"The websites that have been opened up to accommodate the applications and information for these programs have crashed many times because everybody is trying to get in there and work it," Rowe said at the time. 

Rowe declined comment today, but said he hoped that Springfield would have a better shot at another possible round of funding in 2010.

Congresswoman Jo Ann Emerson, who represents the eastern part of the Ozarks, blasted the formula for its bias against rural areas.

"Frankly, this is a great example of why I voted against the stimulus in the first place," Emerson said.

For more on this story and all the Missouri politics of the day, head to the KY3 Political Notebook.

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