The Denver area will receive almost twice as much in anti-terror grant funding this year than last, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said Wednesday.
The metro area will receive $7.8 million in funding from the federal Urban Areas Security Initiative program. That’s up from $4.4 million from the same program a year ago.
Chertoff said in a conference call Wednesday with The Denver Post that the rise in funding was not connected to Denver’s hosting the 2008 Democratic National Convention, which he called a “transitory” event. The grants are intended, he said, to help areas build long-term capabilities and protections.
“I think the big driver in the difference was the quality in the projects that money was being sought for,” Chertoff said.
The urban areas grant, distributed to metropolitan areas across the country with a special emphasis on the six largest cities, was one of a handful of grants announced Wednesday. In total, Colorado received about $20 million, Chertoff said. That’s about a six percent reduction from the previous year.
“We believe we’ve found the right mix in something that puts most of the money in the top places and allows other places money to build capability,” Chertoff said.
Denver was among several cities seeing gains in grant money this year, including San Diego, Phoenix and Minnesota’s twin cities. Others suffered cuts, such as Miami, Milwaukee and Sacramento.
Chertoff said he couldn’t recall specifically any programs slated to receive funding in Colorado that stood out.
David Holm, the interim director of Colorado’s Division of Emergency Management, said in the past money from the grants has gone to fund citizens corps programs, first-responder training and efforts to increase interoperability in emergency agency communication systems. A series of committees will make recommendations to the governor on what programs to fund this year, he said.
Holm said he is happy with the funding this year.
“Up until a couple years ago, we didn’t have any Homeland Security money,” he said. “So this is always a positive for the taxpayers in Colorado.”
The anti-terror aid is an annual exercise that often leads to complaints from cities that come up millions of dollars short, compared to the previous year.
Phoenix more than tripled its take this year, rising to nearly $12 million, Houston saw a 50 percent increase to $25 million, and the Twin Cities area of Minnesota almost doubled its share to $8.5 million.
According to the list given to lawmakers, Orlando stands to lose more than $3 million of the $9 million it received last year, and Miami will lose a quarter of the $16 million it received in 2006.
Milwaukee lost almost half its funding, a cut of nearly $4 million.
Chertoff has repeatedly said cities should not compare one year’s award to the next, because the program is designed to provide aid where the need is greatest in order to make the entire country safer from terrorist attacks.
In the past, that advice has been little comfort to local officials who see their grant amount plummet.
Such swings of fortune were noticeable again this year, particularly with San Diego.
That city was at risk in 2006 of being dropped from the program entirely, yet officials decided this year to double its grant amount to $16 million.
The entire program came under intense criticism last year when the two cities struck hardest by the 2001 terror attacks, New York and Washington, each saw a 40 percent cut in funding.
This year, those two places get a boost: the DC area will get nearly a third more money than last year, for a total of more than $61 million, while New York saw a 7 percent increase, to $134 million. Los Angeles saw its grant cut by 10 percent, to $72 million.
Some amounts to individual cities had already leaked out as members of Congress were notified.
The Urban Area Security Initiative distributes a total of $747 million, reserving the largest share, some $410 million, for seven top tier cities considered at the greatest risk of attack: New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Jersey City, N.J., the San Francisco Bay area, and Houston. The rest is divided among 39 cities that share the rest of the money.
The program is designed to help wide-ranging metropolitan regions, meaning suburbs outside the official city limits also get a share of the funds.
The money can be spent to train, equip, and better protect police, fire, and emergency personnel.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
