. . . the wrong address?

U.S. hinterlands carve out big slices of anti-terror pie

Rural areas get more per capita for security than the big cities in the bull's-eye

By SCOTT CANON The Kansas City Star (Sun., 9/5/04)

[ . . . ]

The federal anti-terror dollars that buy chemical suits and police radios in North Dakota and other sparsely populated parts of America's midsection have big-city mayors seething.

They grumble that three years after the Sept. 11 attacks, money split among the states for homeland security still bears little relation to where the threat runs highest.

Over the last two years, $8.2 billion in federal homeland security funds flowed across the country in ways that factor risk almost as an afterthought and that shortchange — as measured in dollars to people — the country's most crowded places.

Each “Code Orange” alert costs New York City $5 million a week, mostly in police and firefighter overtime. Federal anti-terror funds do not cover that, but they do pay gymnasium fees for 37 volunteer firefighters in Estes Park, Colo.

It's unfortunate that the graphics accompanying the article don't enlarge. One is a list, by state and territory, of per capita allocations. The other (the one with the $20 bill) indicates that, out of $8.2 billion, only $2.9 billion is distributed by population, and an additional $1.4 billion is the only funding disbursed solely on the basis of perceived threat.