Want to know how the $4.5 billion in federal stimulus funds coming to Tennessee is being spent? The answer’s online.

The state of Tennessee and Hamilton County recently posted Web pages with lists of grant funds received from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which Congress passed February.

“The intent is to use (the Web page) to help people learn about Tennessee’s implementation of the act and to link to similar information located on state agency or other Web sites,” said Lola Potter, spokeswoman for the Tennessee Department of Finance and Administration.

Mike Dunne, spokesman for Hamilton County Mayor Claude Ramsey, said the county’s page was posted in the spirit of transparency.

“The Web page should give the public all the information we have available to share in a timely and widespread manner,” he said.

Currently, the county’s stimulus information page displays funding for three grants, worth about $950,000 total, for community health, the Sheriff’s Office and energy conservation.

Becky Barnes, director of the Chattanooga-Hamilton County Health Department, said the grant for community health is “for increased services at our homeless clinic.”

The County Commission gave preliminary approval to several other stimulus grant applications, including one that would allow the sheriff’s office to hire new deputies.

The commission also has approved about $1.4 million in funding for road repaving, but the Tennessee Department of Transportation has not yet approved the contracts for those projects, Mr. Dunne said. He said the projects would appear on the county Web page and the Chattanooga-Hamilton County/North Georgia Transportation Planning Organization’s site as soon as that happens.

Richard Beeland, spokesman for Chattanooga Mayor Ron Littlefield, said the city will post a Web page similar to the county’s in the next few weeks.

State and local governments are not required to post such information online, but federal officials have encouraged them to do so.

Governments must, however, file periodic reports on how they’re spending stimulus money, and guidelines from the White House’s Office of Management and Budget state the recommended Web pages give them a place to put those reports.