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PHOENIX — Arizona is being forced to borrow money because the U.S. Department of Education is imposing new requirements for the state to get stimulus funds, Treasurer Dean Martin has charged.

"What Arizona has received is endless bureaucratic red tape and constantly changing rules to delay access to funds," he said Wednesday. The result, said Martin, is Arizona doesn't have use of $433 million it should have had by now.

That, he said, left Arizona without enough cash to pay the $317 million payment due K-12 schools Wednesday. So Martin said he had to borrow $130.9 million, which the state will need to repay with interest.

Paul Senseman, press aide to Gov. Jan Brewer, acknowledged Arizona has not yet received its first education stimulus payment. And the state did, in fact, have to borrow money to meet its education obligation.

That leaves two questions: Why haven't the federal funds been released, and whose fault is it?

The Governor's Office is distancing itself from Martin's allegation the move is political. Senseman said Brewer and her staff have no evidence, in writing or otherwise, the Department of Education has changed its rules or is purposely withholding any cash.

Sandra Abrevaya, spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of Education, said Martin is wrong about the rules changing. She said the requirements have "remained unchanged throughout."

What the Governor's Office and Abrevaya agree on is federal officials want more information about the education funding in the state budget.

Abrevaya said her agency approved Arizona's request for funds last month.

But the state's request to actually start using the funds has been held up amid questions of whether the money is actually going for education — the only legally permitted use — or for something else, she said.

"The department has been working with the Governor's Office to ensure that they can begin using the funds as quickly as possible and in a manner that is consistent with the law," she said.

In the wake of four federal Cabinet secretaries sending Brewer letters asking if Arizona wants to forgo the rest of the stimulus money it is due, citing Republican Sen. Jon Kyl's criticism of the effectiveness of the program, Martin sees the freeze on the state's education funds as a strong-arm tactic.

Senseman said he can't say whether Martin is being alarmist.

"I guess we won't know for certain until tomorrow," he said, referring to a scheduled conference call later today between the governor's budget aides and federal education officials.

Senseman added, though, that Martin did not discuss his statement about having to borrow the money with the governor before releasing it.

Arizona qualified for about $832 million in education cash under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Senseman said the state, as required by law, applied for the first two-thirds of that in May and got a notice of grant award on June 4.

Of that $557 million, the state then sought a "draw" of $433 million to use in the fiscal year that just ended on June 30. That request, Senseman said, resulted in the questions about how the state budget is "structured."

Martin said the key issue is the "maintenance of efforts" requirement in federal law. States must spend at least as much of their own money for education now as they did before getting the stimulus money.

On Wednesday, Martin said he was told by the Governor's Office that federal officials now want the state to cut education funding. "Only then can Arizona apply for federal funds to replace those cuts," he said.

But Senseman said his office has no information to that effect.

That didn't keep Martin, already planning a trip back East, from leaving for Washington on Wednesday. He said he intends to meet with members of Arizona's congressional delegation about "the seriousness of the state's financial condition and the ineffectiveness of the federal aid to Arizona."

This isn't the first time Arizona has had to borrow money.

The state, struggling with sagging tax receipts, has turned to lenders in the past to meet some payment deadlines. And Martin already had said he was anticipating some short-term borrowing in the future to deal with cash-flow issues.

But with the letters sent out this week, the issue of stimulus funding has become politicized.

Martin said he sees the changes in education funding, along with those letters, as just another part of the pressure being brought on Arizona.

"It's becoming clear that the (Obama) administration is holding education funding hostage to bully Arizona into submission," he said. "This is taxpayer money, not the administration's personal piggy bank."