Nation's mayors complain of new security costs, slower aid

WASHINGTON -- The nation's mayors said Thursday the heightened state of alert is costing their cities $70 million every week, an expense they said could be eased with more federal aid sent directly rather than through states.

"History has shown that money for homeland security that is sent to states are a long, long time in coming," said Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley. States, he said, "are not politically accountable" for spending money, for example, on city-paid first responders and do not feel the urgency to upgrade their equipment and pay overtime. States also take a chunk for administrative costs, he said.

A survey by the U.S. Conference of Mayors of about 150 city governments showed they are spending an additional $21.4 million a week on wartime homeland security since the national alert level went to orange on March 17. Orange is the second-highest level on a five-color scale and indicates a high risk of terrorist attacks.

Nationwide, that means cities are spending $70 million a week more for that purpose, O'Malley said. New York, home to 8 million people, reported spending $5 million on new homeland security costs that week. For Florence, S.C., with 30,248 people, the new spending was $4,000.

The survey, which calculates only new costs incurred as a result of the rise in alert level, were tallied and reported voluntarily by city governments.

The call for federal money comes as President Bush defends his request for Congress to provide $74.7 billion for the emerging costs of war. That request includes $2 billion for local police and emergency agencies to increase security efforts.

Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge and others have said that local governments do bear a share of increased security costs, but that the Bush budget includes a requirement that 80 percent of federal aid given to states be distributed to local governments.

Nonetheless, city leaders say Bush's proposal is not enough and that property and other local taxes cannot cover the security costs.

Five organizations representing state and local governments wrote congressional leaders on Wednesday to say that Bush's $2 billion request was "only a beginning." The groups, which include the League of Cities and the National Conference of State Legislatures, said they needed at least $9 billion.

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On the Net

U.S. Conference of Mayors: usmayors.org/