Topeka ? As Kansas legislators struggle to balance the state budget, help will arrive this week in the form of $71.5 million in federal stimulus funds, officials said Monday.

The money, to be available Wednesday, will go toward the state’s Medicaid program, which provides health care for low-income residents and those with disabilities.

The $71.5 million represents the first installment of $440 million in additional Medicaid funds that Kansas expects to get from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

“The importance of this money cannot be overstated,” said Marcia Nielsen, executive director of the Kansas Health Policy Authority, the state agency that administers Medicaid in Kansas.

“This is real money, and it is direct fiscal relief for the state of Kansas because it reimburses us for costs we’ve already incurred,” Nielsen said.

Lawmakers are starting to work on the budget for the next fiscal year, which starts July 1, facing upward of a

$1 billion revenue shortfall. But that shortfall estimate was made before the federal stimulus package was approved by Congress and signed into law by President Barack Obama.

Nielsen has asked key state lawmakers to refrain from cutting the state portion of the Medicaid budget until the federal funds arrive.

“This money, plus the money coming in future installments, reduces the amount of state general fund money it will take to continue providing health coverage to low-income Kansans, including those who’ve been hardest hit by the economic downturn,” she said.

Senate Democratic Leader Anthony Hensley of Topeka said the state budget will be cut but the extent of the cuts will depend in part “on how the stimulus money comes into play.”