L.A. Area to Get $92.5 Million in Anti-Terror Funds

Recognizing that the region is a prime target for terrorists, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced Wednesday that cities in the Los Angeles Basin would get $92.5 million for anti-terrorism efforts this year.

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said the $80.6 million share that the Los Angeles-Long Beach area will receive -- allocated even as anti-terrorism funding declined nationally -- represents a 14% increase over last year. He said the allotment demonstrates that federal officials are now trying to aid urban areas at least partly based on risk, not just population.

“This is a great day for Los Angeles and Long Beach,” Villaraigosa said.

The city’s ports respectively rank as the largest and second-largest in the United States.

In addition to getting support for the grant from the area’s congressional delegation, the mayor said the money was won partly because of “the federal government’s recognition that our dense urban population and our high-profile critical infrastructure is the single greatest terrorist target west of the Mississippi.”

Across the nation, Homeland Security awarded $1.7 billion Wednesday to fight terrorism and other disasters. Of that, $757.3 million went to cities as part of the Urban Areas Security Initiative. New York City received the largest urban grant -- $124.4 million, although that amount is less than the $220 million it got last year. Washington, D.C., saw its allocation drop from $82 million to $46 million.

“Our goal is to greatly enhance the collective preparedness of the nation while making certain that finite resources are directed to areas most at risk and to solutions that are innovative and regionally driven,” said Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff.

In California, $80.6 million in urban funds went to Los Angeles, Long Beach and 26 area cities extending to Ventura County. But other urban parts of the state received less than in the past. The Anaheim-Santa Ana area got $11.9 million, a drop of $8 million. San Diego received $7.9 million, about half its total of last year. And the San Francisco Bay Area received $28.2 million, $6 million less than last year.

“Obviously, it’s less than what we received in the past, but we realize that the pool of federal funds available is not as large,” said John Nicoletti, a spokesman for the city of Anaheim. “The city was fortunate it was able to receive $12 million, considering a lot of cities were not able to receive anything.”

The Los Angeles-Long Beach area will use some of the money to develop a countywide initiative for regional planning and training, said Los Angeles Deputy Mayor Maurice Suh.