Unfair Share of Security Money

[ablarc]

I will never forgive them. Bastards.

They won't ask you to. Bastards.

[JCMAN320]

NJ gets good and bad news with Homeland Security funding

5/31/2006, 9:02 p.m. ET
By DONNA DE LA CRUZ
The Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — New Jersey will get far fewer federal dollars for homeland security in the next fiscal year, but the Jersey City-Newark area will see a dramatic increase in funding, officials announced Wednesday.

The Jersey City-Newark area will receive a total of $34.3 million in anti-terrorism grants for fiscal 2006, a 76.8 percent increase from the $19.4 million awarded the previous year. The two cities and their surrounding areas were considered as one locale in the grant process, so it will be up to local officials to divvy up that pile of cash.

The region is one of 46 areas nationwide declared at high risk of attacks which are dividing up $710 million. The Department of Homeland Security this year combined cities with shared boundaries into single entities. The agency studied vulnerability and risk of a terrorist attack in awarding the high-risk grants.

New Jersey's congressional delegation has long argued that the region that includes the counties of Bergen, Essex, Hudson, Morris, Passaic and Union is at a high-risk of attack. Several tunnels and bridges, a major airport and highway are included in this area. This region covers 1,164 square miles and has a population of 3.8 million, more than 44 percent of the state's total population, according to information from New Jersey's Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness.

"When the criteria for homeland security funding is based on risk, New Jersey gets its fair share, but when these funds are weighed down by pork, our state loses," said Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J.

Overall, New Jersey will get $51.92 million in DHS grant money, a figure that includes the high-risk grant. Last year, the state got a total of $56 million.

"It's extremely small compared with what our needs our are," said Richard Canas, New Jersey's Homeland Security director. He said New Jersey had requested approximately $800 million in grants.

Gov. Jon Corzine said he was disappointed the overall size of homeland security grants has been reduced nationwide. DHS said it was distributing $1.7 billion in fiscal year 2006, a 29 percent decrease from the previous year's total of $2.4 billion nationwide.

"The amount of funds available should be growing, not declining," Corzine said. "Protecting families and communities is the most important role of government, and I will continue to work with our congressional delegation on this pressing issue."

Canas said individual counties will learn in July how much DHS money they will receive.

"The counties will be funded based on clearly articulated guidelines related to the specific risks we face in New Jersey," Canas said.

The state received money in the form of several other DHS grants, but saw a decrease of about 27 percent across the board, state officials said. For example, the state last year got $27 million for a program designed to fund homeland security strategy, and this year got $9.1 million.

In the Law Enforcement Terrorism Prevention Program, the state last year got $9.7 million and this year is getting $7.5 million. That program funds law enforcement and public safety functions.

Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., said he could not understand why all the DHS grants aren't based on risk. Some grants are doled out according to population.

"So long as Homeland Security grants are awarded based on factors other than risk, those states most at-risk will continue to lack the necessary resources to protect the people they serve," Menendez said.

___

On the Net:

Department of Homeland Security: http://www.dhs.gov/dhspublic

[Kris]

List of Allocations (pdf)

[Ninjahedge]

They are playing politics again.

Is there a reason Omaha needs more money? Because they have a better more formulated plan of defense of an area that is at very low risk of attack?

I can see Newark/JC, being targets just because of Newark Ariport, all the shipping depots and the buisness district development of JC. So long as the money stays OUT of the hands of the towns themselves (Mayor, etc), I think that it can be well spent.

I am still wondering why Alaska is getting ANY $ whatsoever. They really have to cut the BS and get back to reality on this.

[stache]

I've pretty much given up on our government doing *anything* effective.

[MrSpice]

At least we know that peolpe in Omaha are safe. I heart it's a top target of Warren Buffet protesters (they want him to have less money).

[lofter1]

Not that I agree with the new allocations, but ...

Is there a reason Omaha needs more money? Because they have a better more formulated plan of defense of an area that is at very low risk of attack?

SAC Bases: Offutt Air Force Base

Location: OMAHA, Nebraska

Home of: SAC Headquarters, 55th Strategic Recon Wing, 385th Bomb Wing
Status: Headquarters of U.S. Strategic Command

[kliq6]

NYC gettting funding cut is a kick in the gut from a country that has never liked the place anyway going back to Lincoln sending in the troops on us, so this should come to know surprise

[Ninjahedge]

Not that I agree with the new allocations, but ...


SAC Bases: Offutt Air Force Base

Location: OMAHA, Nebraska

Home of: SAC Headquarters, 55th Strategic Recon Wing, 385th Bomb Wing
Status: Headquarters of U.S. Strategic Command

The only thing you have to ask is:

Were these bases insecure to begin with?

Was the SAC located in the downtown Mini-mall or was it already on an isolated military base?

I understand what you are saying, but what major unprotected resource/facility do we have there that needed a boost in fundage? (honest question, not trying to infer that they have nothing)

[lofter1]

The irony is that no matter how much money is allocated to any given location there is a dang good chance that the gov't will screw up anyway -- and basically everyone will be on their own to figure out how to deal with whatever the situation might be.

[BrooklynRider]

The best Homeland Security plan for this nation is to impeach, try, convict and jail George W. Bush and jail Cheney, Rice, Rumsfeld, Delay, Frist, Richard Perle, Paul Wolfowitz and Alberto Gonzalez.

[ablarc]

Add Karl Rove, and you've got the Gang of Ten.

[BigMac]

NY Daily News
May 31, 2006

Feds to city: drop dead

Homeland honcho cuts funds by 40%

BY MICHAEL SAUL in New York and MICHAEL McAULIFF in Washington
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS


Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff


A new report from the Homeland Security Department deems that New York City has no national icons that deserve special protection from potential terrorist threats.

The city was stunned yesterday to find that its share of federal anti-terror funds was slashed nearly in half by bureaucrats who said it has no national icons to protect and lousy defense plans.

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff determined, however, that cities that have never been targeted by Al Qaeda — like Louisville, Atlanta and Omaha — deserve whopping increases.

"This is a knife in the back," fumed a furious Rep. Pete King (R-L.I.), chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee. "As far as I'm concerned, the Department of Homeland Security has declared war on New York."

Mayor Bloomberg ridiculed Homeland Security's reasoning.

"When you stop a terrorist, they have a map of New York City in their pocket. They don't have a map of any of the other 46 places or 45 places [that get funding]," he fumed.

The city will get $125 million from the feds' high-threat bank account, a 40% cut from the $207 million it received last year. The Homeland money pot was smaller overall this year, but the rest of the country is being trimmed just 14%.

The lowball dollar amount puts at risk the NYPD's plan to build a "ring of steel" of security measures around lower Manhattan — surveillance cameras, computerized license plate readers and vehicle barriers.

The NYPD had asked the feds for $89.1 million for the system, modeled after London's security program. London's system gained worldwide recognition last summer when police cameras provided images of the bombers who attacked its transit system.

Heaping insult on injury, Homeland Security reviewers slammed some of the city's key anti-terror programs as among the worst in the nation — including the vaunted NYPD counterterrorism unit.

Emergency plans for the police, fire, hospitals and other city departments were considered so inferior that "a special condition will be included in the grant award prohibiting drawdown of funds ... until they have been approved through DHS," Homeland's assessment concluded.

"These are the same bean counters who think that the Statue of Liberty, Empire State Building and Brooklyn Bridge are not national monuments or icons," scoffed Bloomberg spokesman Jordan Barowitz.

A Homeland Security spokesman insisted New York's cut was based on a powerful new matrix that crunches millions of bits of data to figure out where money is most needed.

"We're quite frankly getting highly sophisticated in our ability to analyze threat," said Russ Knocke.

Knocke would not address specifically why a threat-based assessment cut funds for a city that has been attacked twice and targeted repeatedly by Islamic terrorists.

"It's not so much fighting the last war, it's taking in the threat picture today," he said. "We've got to apply dollars where they will have the greatest impact."

But a document obtained by the Daily News that explains what Homeland Security reviewers were looking at in their analysis suggests key data were missing.

For instance, in the category "national monuments and icons," the feds list none. For banking and finance businesses, they could find only four worth more than $8 billion, when the Bloomberg administration estimates there are at least 20.

"How do you leave every single landmark in the most famous city in the world off of that list?" said Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.), who along with King was demanding a meeting with Chertoff.

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) blamed the White House and said, "I don't think the President should come back and express solidarity with New York until there is more funding."

Bloomberg said the city wouldn't change its approach. "We're going to continue to do what it takes to keep this city safe and then worry about the money," he said.

With Alison Gendar and Dorian Block


More money to guard nothing

The fire chief of Charlotte, N.C., admits his city doesn't have any national monuments in danger of being bombed. And a spokesman for Omaha is "not aware" of a single credible threat against his municipality since 9/11.

Yet these cities are among 15 that received an increase in homeland security funding this year, while New York City's allotment was slashed.

Most of the lucky localities are using their windfall to buy equipment, beef up training or create emergency response plans.

In Louisville, Ky., for instance, the money will go toward creating a new communication system for first responders to a disaster.

A spokeswoman drew on the failure of FDNY radios in the World Trade Center attack on 9/11 — even though the tallest building in Louisville tops out at 35 stories.

Here's how some cities are faring under the new budget:

- Jacksonville, Fla. 2005 funds: $6.8 million. 2006 funds: $9.2 million. Increase: 26%. Major landmark: Alltel Stadium, home of Jacksonville Jaguars.

- St. Louis; 2005 funds: $7 million. 2006 funds: $9.2 million. Increase: 23.6%. Major landmark: Gateway Arch.

- Louisville, Ky.; 2005 funds: $5 million. 2006 funds: $8.5 million. Increase: 41.2%. Major landmark: Churchill Downs race track.

- Omaha 2005 funds: $5.1 million. 2006 funds: $8.3 million. Increase: 38.2%. Major landmark: Offutt Air Force Base.

Tracy Connor

[ablarc]

Not just untrue, but insulting.

[MrSpice]

This is just ridiculous, but reflects the problem with distributing the federal dollars that is decided based on political realities. The way to do this would be to shift more power to the states (i.e., cut federal taxes and shoft some of the burden to the individual states). If New Yorkers did not pay so much of their taxes to the federal government and did not subsidize with our Wall Street payouts all those people in Nebraska and Oklahoma, we would have plenty of money to provide for our own security.

But frankly, we should not overstate the importance of this money. We are talking about a hundred million dollars or so for the whole state. New York State has a budget of over 100 billion dollars. But it's outrageous and unfair nontheless.