Security funding for state up in air

PORTLAND – Maine could receive a smaller share of homeland security money based on the Sept. 11 commission’s recommendation that emergency preparedness funding be based on risks and vulnerability.

But even though the state lacks the population and profile considered likely to attract a terrorist attack, Maine officials say cutting funding for smaller states runs counter to efforts to improve safety and response systems nationwide.

“New York and Washington, D.C., should be a priority for funding, but at the same time there is an expectation from the federal government that all states should improve how their systems function and with that expectation goes funding,” said Lee Umphrey, spokesman for Gov. John Baldacci. “States need to have resources if the expectation is they’re going to have strong security systems in place.”

The Bush administration this week warned of a high risk of terrorist attacks at financial institutions in New York City, New Jersey and Washington.

Baldacci met Sunday with Maine Emergency Management Director Arthur Cleaves, who chairs the governor’s homeland security advisory council, to discuss the heightened threat level. Cleaves contacted other members of the council, but the threat warning issued by Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge had no direct impact on Maine.

“We have no large-scale targets like those that were specifically pointed out to us by Secretary Ridge,” said Steve Burgess, deputy director of the Maine Emergency Management Agency.

In its book-length report based on its months-long study of the 2001 attacks, the Sept. 11 commission included a recommendation that specifically addresses who should get homeland security money.

“Base federal funding for emergency preparedness solely on risks and vulnerabilities, putting New York City and Washington, D.C., at the top of the current list,” the report said. “Such assistance should not remain a program for general revenue sharing or pork-barrel spending.”

Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, who is presiding over the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee’s hearings on the commission’s recommendations, is seeking to ensure that some security funding remains earmarked for small states.

“The distribution of federal homeland security dollars should not be determined on a scale based on a state’s population, it should be determined on a state’s risk and vulnerability to terrorist attacks,” Collins said in a statement pointing to Maine’s 3,500 miles of coastline, shipping ports and its border with Canada. “Each state should also be ensured a baseline level of homeland security funding to assure preparedness.”

A recent federal report shows that Maine received $24.2 million of the $2.4 billion that the federal government had spent on homeland security. Collins is traveling to her home state today to meet with local officials about creating a joint terrorism task force.