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When it comes to divvying up what's left of $20 million in county bond money to improve neighborhoods, ask not how much crime a neighborhood has or how poor its residents are.

Ask first which supervisor district the neighborhood is in.

And residents of the two districts represented by Republicans will be out of luck.

Even though the voter-approved Pima County Neighborhood Reinvestment bond ordinance calls for the money to be spent in economically or socially stressed areas throughout the county, County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry has decided to cap the money by supervisor district.

So far, Pima County has spent $10.6 million, with $1 million going to community centers in the Republican districts and the rest going to parks, street improvements, community centers and other projects in the three Democratic districts.

The money was given out on a first-come, first-served basis to neighborhood associations and community groups who met certain criteria.

But under the new policy, no more money will go to the Republican districts. The remaining $9.4 million will be spent only in the Democratic districts, even though county officials have not yet identified projects for all the money.

The policy is based on each district's economic profile, Huckelberry said. The Republican districts are more affluent.

"There really are only three districts with any significant stress areas," he said. "That's how I felt it was best to divide it."

But the Republican districts include several areas designated as medium-high stress areas, as well as pockets of poverty in more well-to-do areas.

Republican supervisors are crying foul. They say the new policy changes the bond ordinance and should have been put to the Board of Supervisors for a vote.

"To implement this kind of thing with no opportunity for discourse, when it's a structural change to the bond ordinance, makes a mockery of the process," said Supervisor Ray Carroll, a Republican.

They also say it's unfair to remove a project from consideration just because it falls on one side of a political line.

"These areas deserve the same opportunities as other neighborhoods facing poverty and crime and stress," said Supervisor Ann Day, also a Republican.

Supervisor Richard Elias, a Democrat and chairman of the board, said he doesn't consider the policy "written in stone," but he supports holding most of the remaining money for urban areas. He described the policy as an attempt to be consistent with the bond ordinance.

"We're getting close to reaching the end of that money," he said. "We need to be careful about how we distribute it. We need to make sure we maintain our focus on the highest-stress areas."

The 1997 Neighborhood Reinvestment program was limited to just District 2, then represented by Supervisor Dan Eckstrom and now by Supervisor Ramon Valadez, and District 5, then represented by Raúl Grijalva and now by Elias. The 2004 bond package expanded the program to include the entire county.

The 2004 bond ordinance calls for $5 million to be reserved for districts 2 and 5 as part of "maintenance of effort." That goal has been met already.

The remaining $15 million was to be divided "equally between the urban core high stress areas and the suburban/rural stress areas."

A neighborhood's stress levels are determined by a 2000 study that looked at factors like the ratio of children and seniors to working adults, education levels, lack of English fluency, unemployment, neighborhood stability and poor housing.

A neighborhood's stress level is just a starting point, said Neighborhood Reinvestment Program Manager Leslie Nixon.

Community groups can present other factors, like high crime levels, as they make their case.

Mount Lemmon, in District 4, received $500,000 toward its community center. The 2003 Aspen Fire was a major factor in declaring the area stressed.

Catalina, in District 1, also received $500,000 toward a community center. Parts of Catalina are so wealthy the area doesn't appear stressed from a statistical standpoint. But Catalina is home to hundreds of families living in old trailers on dirt roads.

Al Skorupski, chairman of the neighborhood reinvestment oversight committee, said he's troubled by the cap.

"I'm not too pleased with such an arbitrary decision," he said. "I don't think it was the voters' intent. There was no language in there about caps."

Nixon said the county has had to go back to several communities and tell them their application couldn't be funded now because of the cap.

One of those is Mulberry Tree Meadows, a community made up largely of seniors living in older mobile homes. It's located north of Flowing Wells, on the District 1 side of the line.

At one point there were seven meth houses in the 50-home neighborhood and other problems as well, said LaNah Laplander, a neighborhood activist. She had hoped to get neighborhood reinvestment money to turn an abandoned office and pool that has become a safety hazard into a small park.

"I've worked so hard to make this a nice neighborhood," she said. "That is pathetic when they base it on that (district). It should be based on the needs of the areas."

One of the reasons for the restrictions is that too many projects in medium-stress areas were getting approved, Huckelberry said.

Some of those are in Democratic Supervisor Sharon Bronson's district. With $4.1 million for projects in Ajo, Amado, Three Points, Flowing Wells and other areas, her district has benefited the most from the Neighborhood Reinvestment program.

Now several community groups there will have to scale back their projects that are going through the application process or the district will go over its cap of $5.7 million.

Bronson blamed the city of Tucson for the lack of funds rather than county administration for imposing a cap. She said the city shouldn't have charged the county for overhead in areas where it managed the projects.

"I would like to see full funding, understanding there are too many worthy projects and not enough money," she said. "And I'll keep advocating for my district."