As New York state and city politicians attack the Department of Homeland Security over cutting the funds NYC gets for anti-terrorism efforts, the DHS has been fighting back by saying that New York City's proposal wasn't well-prepared. The NY Times writes, "Federal officials said yesterday that the city had not only done a poor job of articulating its needs in its application, but had also mishandled the application itself, failing to file it electronically as required, instead faxing its request to Washington." Ha! NY state and city officials say that, in fact, they did electronically submit the application - but you know that there's probably sniping about so-and-so's aide or intern screwing things up. But In fact, NYC, though in the "top 25% of urban areas at risk," was rated in the bottom 25% for the "quality of its application"! Our politicians, though, are saying that the DHS directed money to cities where reelections were coming up in the fall. The Daily News has a feature on Tracy Henske, the DHS official who "signed off on the cuts" - she's from Missouri and Missouri cities got increases in funding!
The united effort to show the DHS it's wrong allows Republican Representative Peter King and Democrat Senator Hillary Clinton to start a postcard writing project, to convince the DHS there, in fact, are landmarks and and monuments in New York City. And Senator Charles Schumer wrote an "angry letter" to DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff, leading Chertoff to say, "Attacking the secretary personally or threatening the secretary is not a way to drive funding decisions in this department or any other department." Maybe Comptroller Alan Hevesi should think about a speech involving Chertoff...
This will mean the city has to find new ways to finance police overtime and potential projects like the "ring of steel" in lower Manhattan. The NY Times has a good editorial about the problem, noting that high population states like NY, California and Texas frequently get screwed over in the process of doling out anti-terror funds; the Daily News damns Chertoff; and the Post lauds Rep. King's efforts to get money for NY; and And to put a cherry on top of all of this, a report from the Public Policy Institute of The Business Council of NY State says that NY State taxpayers pay much more than other states for state and local taxes. We're in a NY State of mind, all right.
Photograph from Bluejake
