* Lobbyists pushing to triple CA home buyer tax credit

* Extension would maintain new-construction restriction (Rewrites first paragraph, adds analyst and executive quotes, background)

By Helen Chernikoff

NEW YORK, May 13 (Reuters) - The amount of money available to fund California's $10,000 tax credit on new-home purchases would triple under legislation announced on Wednesday, but the bill's backers might struggle to get it passed.

The bill would increase to $300 million from $100 million money designated for the credit, which applies to newly constructed and previously unoccupied homes. The California Building Industry Association, a trade group that backs the legislation, said the original funding would otherwise run out by early summer.

"At the end of the day this bill is not just good for homebuilders, it's good for workers and it's good for home buyers. It's good for everyone. It's good policy," said Jose Solorio, a Democrat of Santa Ana and one of the bill's co-sponsors in the State Assembly.

The bill's backers tout its efficacy as a general economic stimulus, claiming that every $10,000 tax credit generates $16,000 of tax revenue.

The U.S. homebuilding industry has been struggling amid a nationwide slump rooted in the rampant risky mortgage practices of the housing boom and exacerbated by the recession and rising unemployment.

More recently, however, both homebuilding company executives and the industry's monthly and quarterly data have sounded a more positive note, describing thicker buyer traffic and moderating declines in sales that inspired a rally in homebuilder shares of 39 percent since early March's recent low as measured by the Dow Jones U.S. Home Construction Index .DJUSHB.