AUGUSTA – Maine has yet to receive any money from the billions of dollars appropriated by Congress for homeland defense since the September terrorist attacks. U.S. Sen. Olympia Snowe was clearly surprised and upset when told that at a meeting with state and local officials here Tuesday.

“Are you telling me you have not received any funding from what we have appropriated and authorized?” Snowe asked Maj. Gen. Joseph Tinkham, Maine commissioner of defense, veterans and emergency management, and Maine’s adjutant general.

“No, ma’am,” he said, “not a penny.”

Tinkham said the only funds the state has received related to homeland defense were a $1.4 million grant from the Department of Justice under a program funded before the attacks. The grant was designed to help set up eight regional teams to respond to any incident that might involve chemical or biological weapons.

Even that amount wasn’t sufficient for the task, said Maine Emergency Management Director Art Cleaves.

“I will tell you that is far short of adequate,” he said. “The response time in some areas of the state just would not be adequate.”

When Snowe asked what type of effort would provide an “appropriate” level of coverage, Cleaves replied there should be 16 fully trained and equipped teams deployed across the state. He said each team needs $250,000 worth of equipment as well as considerable training.

Reflecting some of the costs experienced by local emergency respondents after Sept. 11, Cleaves said he recently received a request from fire chiefs across the state for $50,000 to replace air tanks used to investigate hundreds of anthrax scares. No anthrax was identified in any of the cases.

“I had to tell them no,” he told Snowe, “because we have no money for that purpose.”

Tinkham said both the state and local governments have incurred significant expenses and are being forced to pay the bills without federal help. He said a Maine Emergency Management Agency study last month estimated first-year state and local costs at $31 million, with a recurring cost of $20 million a year.

Augusta City Manager William Bridgeo said his city has already spent close to $100,000 in overtime for police and fire departments, and that other municipal officials have estimated similar costs.

“Without some help,” he said, “it is the local taxpayers that will pick up this cost.”

Also, Tinkham said the state has identified what he described as “category A” sites where a terrorist attack could result in major loss of life or serious economic or environmental damage.

“Unfortunately, we only can identify those sites,” he said.

Without the necessary funding, he said, the state cannot provide the increased security needed at those sites to prevent such attacks. “With the state budget shortfall, the money is just not there, Senator.”

Tinkham said that while the state and local governments have not received any federal help, all have pulled together to do what has been needed to respond to various anthrax scares. He praised local police and fire departments for the cooperative efforts since September.

“But the bills are going to come due and are going to have to be paid,” he said, “and the federal government should come up with some help.”

Tinkham and Cleaves told Snowe that Congress should adopt the Federal Emergency Management Agency model for homeland security funding. In a federally recognized disaster, FEMA reimburses 75 percent of the costs state and local governments incur dealing with the disaster.

“That sounds like a model I should discuss with [Homeland Security] Director Ridge,” Snowe said. “And I plan to find out why the money is not flowing to the states.”

Snowe is holding a series of meetings across the state to hear from local officials and residents on the problem of homeland security funding and other issues.