NYT: Big Cities Will Get More in Antiterrorism Grants

[DeepModem Mom]

Big Cities Will Get More in Antiterrorism Grants
By ERIC LIPTON

Published: December 22, 2004


WASHINGTON, Dec. 21 - Responding to repeated calls from big-city mayors, the Department of Homeland Security is shifting a larger share of its annual $3.5 billion in antiterrorism grants to the nation's largest cities, allowing them to accelerate purchases of equipment and training needed to better defend against - or at least rapidly respond to - an attack.

The biggest beneficiary of the shift is New York City, which has been awarded a $208 million grant for the 2005 fiscal year, compared with $47 million in the 2004 fiscal year, which ended on Sept. 30. That should allow the city to buy more devices that can detect chemical, biological or other hazards, increase training for its police and firefighters and spend more money on an intelligence center where it analyzes possible terrorist threats, one state official said.

Los Angeles, Washington, Chicago and Boston also are getting larger grants, although the increase is not nearly as substantial as in New York....

***

Proponents of the shift say they hope it is only a first step in a more fundamental revamping of homeland security grants. But the change has evoked protests from cities that have dropped off the list or whose allocations have shrunk, including Orlando, Fla.; Memphis; and New Haven. ...


http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/22/politics/22grants.html

[leftofcool]

1. Oh absolutely...............

giving more monies to the big cities will keep the "turrists" from coming across the borders. The logic is mind bogling.

Left of cool

[durablend]

2. And to balance it out...

Those nasty blue states will have funding for everything else cut.