Editorial: Anti-terror funds lacking

Friday, June 2, 2006 | 7:18 a.m.

In January the Homeland Security Department dropped Las Vegas from its list of urban areas designated as most in need of extra funding to prepare for a possible terrorism attack.

Our view on being dropped from the list has not changed from the moment we heard the news on Jan. 3. We remain dumbfounded by the foolishness of the decision.

The list is compiled under the department's three-year-old Urban Area Security Initiative. This fiscal year the department's total budget for state and local terrorism preparedness was $1.7 billion. Of that amount, $711 million was dedicated to the UASI program, to be shared by the urban areas making the list.

The remainder, $989 million, is divided equally among the states and U.S. territories.

Las Vegas and the 10 other cities dropped from the list, including San Diego and Phoenix, were allowed, however, to make one last application for money under the UASI program to sustain preparedness programs already under way. Fortunately, under this concession, Las Vegas learned Wednesday it would receive $7.75 million, nearly 85 percent of what it received last year.

San Diego, on the other hand, will receive only 56 percent of the previous year's grant and Phoenix will get only 39 percent. The Washington Post pointed out Thursday that many of the Sept. 11 hijackers had lived in San Diego and that some of the hijackers were suspected of taking flight lessons in the Phoenix area.

But even though Las Vegas received more than expected - we could have received next to nothing - the Department of Homeland Security still warrants withering criticism for dropping us from the list. We stand to lose all funding from the UASI program next year, and for years to come. And yet at least five of the hijackers are known to have visited Las Vegas prior to Sept. 11, a fact the Las Vegas Sun helped to uncover.

Additionally, the Las Vegas population swells by about 200,000 each day, owing to our status as an international destination for tourists. To be fully prepared for an attack here, emergency officials estimate we need at least $700 million to cover the costs of training and supplies.

Congress needs to set aside more money for preparedness, particularly under the UASI program. And the Homeland Security Department, whose priority list for preparedness funds includes Columbus, Ohio, but not Las Vegas, needs a whole new approach to assessing which urban areas are most at risk.