WASHINGTON -- The White House appeared yesterday to rule out using federal stimulus money to help Georgia officials build a manufacturing plant for NCR Corp., which is moving its headquarters from Dayton to Georgia.

The effort by officials of Columbus, Ga., to seek money from the $787 billion economic-stimulus package provoked anger and outrage among Ohio politicians, who said federal tax dollars should not help NCR move to another state.

A White House official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said no stimulus money has been awarded, "and the administration obviously had no role in the relocation," noting that NCR had decided to move before Georgia officials said they would apply for the money.

But the official added that the Department of Commerce, which has control over the money, won't allow it be used to encourage "corporate relocation from one U.S. region to another and will review every request very carefully."

However, the Commerce Department seemed to leave the door open to using stimulus money to help Georgia build a plant for NCR.

Another source, who also spoke anonymously, said a Commerce official told the staff of an Ohio lawmaker last night that there did not appear to be a direct link between NCR leaving Dayton and the request by Georgia officials for stimulus money. But, the source said, "We're going to work to make sure this doesn't happen again in the future."

House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-West Chester, and Rep. Michael Turner, R-Dayton, wrote President Barack Obama late Tuesday asking him and Vice President Joe Biden to "take the steps necessary to prevent this from happening to other regions that are in economic peril."

In a statement, Rep. Mary Jo Kilroy, D-Columbus, said: "It is outrageous that a state could use this money to steal jobs from Ohio. I will work with our delegation, both Republicans and Democrats, to put an end to the unscrupulous practice of these individuals and make sure job creation continues, not job shifting. It does nothing to help workers in Ohio or Georgia if we are just changing locations instead of doing the real work of investing in future jobs."

Jim Wetherington, mayor of Columbus, Ga., said he has applied for stimulus money to help refurbish a 340,000-square-foot facility and construct a 100,000 square-foot building in which NCR can manufacture ATMs.

Wetherington said if the federal government rejected the request, "then local government would have to foot the bill."

jtorry@dispatch.com