Mayor Seeks Risk-Based Terror Funding

WASHINGTON - Mayor Bloomberg acknowledged yesterday that despite New York's push to give the secretary of homeland security, Michael Chertoff, exclusive control over federal antiterrorism spending, that prospect may be unrealistic.

The mayor and the city's congressional delegation argue that New York would benefit from such an arrangement because the secretary would allocate money based on threat, rather than on the political calculations that have led lawmakers to funnel homeland security money to their districts, which are often at lower risk of terrorist attack.

The mayor emerged yesterday from a day of meetings with congressional lawmakers with a sober assessment of Washington politics.

"It's a realistic thing to understand that this is a country of 50 states and that every one of those states has two senators and at least one representative, and they all pay taxes and they all have needs, and everyone will argue that their needs are particularly important," Mr. Bloomberg told reporters.

Although lawmakers from both sides understand that threat-based funding is "the rational way to do it," Mr. Bloomberg said every congressman and senator wants to bring home some money.

"That's part of democracy, and we just have to learn to live with that," he said.

However, the mayor said he expected the city would prevail at least in part.

To date, New York City has received ample funds under the current system, he said.

"This past year, we actually - when all was said and done - did pretty well with a few hundred million dollars out of Washington for homeland security," he said.

President Bush's 2006 budget set aside $41.1 billion for homeland security, and just under $3.6 billion for state and local first responders. The money was more weighted toward high-risk areas than previously had been the case.

Democrats have been highly critical of the mayor's ability to exact funds from Washington, despite the fact that Mr. Bloomberg is a Republican.

Rep. Anthony Weiner, a Democrat of Queens who is running in the Democratic mayoral primary, criticized the mayor's comments as too accepting of congressional politics.

"It sounds to me like he is resigned to having a formula that is unfair to New York," Mr. Weiner said.

"We don't need Mike Bloomberg teaching us civics. We need him practicing hard, cold politics with his Republican friends," said Mr. Weiner.

The mayor's visit came as House lawmakers moved closer to adopting a threat-based formula for federal funding.

The mayor lunched with the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, Rep. Christopher Cox, who yesterday introduced a bill that would allow most, though not all, federal funds to be allocated based on threat.

The Faster and Smarter Funding for First Responders Act would require a First Responder Grant Board to allocate grants based on threat, vulnerability, and the impact of a potential attack.

But the bill also gives every state a base level of funding - equal to one quarter of 1% of the total funds. A similar bill in the Senate would reserve an even larger share for the states.

Rep. Peter King, a Long Island Republican and member of the Homeland Security Committee, said the House bill would give Mr. Chertoff wide discretion and is likely to pass out of committee and come to a full vote next month in the House, where he expected it to pass.

Mr. King predicted a fight in conference as Senate and House negotiators iron out a compromise. "But no matter what we come up with, it will be better than it has been in the past," he said.

The mayor met with Mr. Chertoff for nearly an hour yesterday. The secretary was scheduled to testify in favor of Mr. Cox's bill before the committee today.

Mr. Bloomberg said it is "hard" to put a number on the city's terrorism-related expenses, but just the cost of maintaining the equivalent of 1,000 full-time police officers dedicated to terrorism and intelligence-gathering costs the city hundreds of millions of dollars each year, he said.

The mayor also met with the heads of several powerful committees and pressed New York's interests on issues such as a proposed end to the deductibility of state and local taxes, which he said would cost every New Yorker an extra $5,000 in taxes, and proposed cuts to Medicaid, which he said will hurt New Yorkers and hospitals.