WASHINGTON (AP) – The massive omnibus spending bill that the Senate will take up next week includes hundreds of millions of dollars in special projects for New England states.

But while the small state of New Hampshire would receive one of the highest totals based on population, reaping more than $204 per capita, Connecticut ranks near the bottom, getting barely $18 per person in the $373 billion measure.

Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Maine and Vermont all fared well, getting between $32 and $50 per capita, based on the census and an analysis by the Taxpayers for Common Sense, a government watchdog group.

But those totals paled in comparison to the Senate’s Appropriations Committee heavyweights – Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, and Sen. Robert C. Byrd, D-W.V., who are chairman and ranking member respectively.

The bill includes nearly $500 million in special projects for Alaska – a whopping $764 per person in the vast but sparsely populated state.

Appropriations committee members, including Rep. Patrick Kennedy, D-R.I., and Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., often have an upper hand in getting special projects funded.

“Serving on the Appropriations Committee gives him the opportunity to bring home funds that might not normally come to the state,” said Kennedy spokesman Ernesto Anguilla.

But Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., noted the problems of being a Democrat in the GOP-controlled House. “Due to many factors, including the budget deficit, the tax cuts, and the war in Iraq, many significant and deserving programs were left out of the bill,” said DeLauro, who is also on the appropriations panel. “Unfortunately, the House Republican Leadership has taken on an increasingly partisan tone in this year’s process…”

and punished Democrats for opposing certain parts of the bill.”

Many Democrats, including DeLauro and Kennedy, voted against the omnibus bill.

, saying it shortchanged priorities such as education and veterans’ programs.

A merger of seven appropriations bills, the measure would finance most of the government’s domestic programs, including 11 Cabinet-level departments and scores of other agencies for the fiscal year that began Oct. 1. It passed the House in early December but stalled in the Senate.

It funds more than $10 billion in hometown projects, including $263 million for New Hampshire, $206 million for Massachusetts, $62.6 million for Connecticut, $46.5 million for Maine, $44.4 million for Rhode Island and $31 million for Vermont.

The totals don’t represent all of the state’s federal dollars. Connecticut’s delegation focuses on getting billions of dollars for state programs in the defense bill, which already passed.

To build support for the omnibus bill, Stevens sent letters to senators noting the funding their states will get if it passes.

Major projects for the region include $154.5 million for prison construction in Berlin, N.H.; $73 million for repairs to the John W. McCormack Post Office and Courthouse in Boston; $7.7 million for border station construction in Jackman, Maine; $5 million for the Adriaen’s Landing development project in Hartford, Conn.; $5 million for removal of the Old Jamestown Bridge near Newport, R.I.; and $4 million for the Missisquoi Bay Bridge in Vermont.

AP-ES-01-16-04 0216EST