Funding cuts ahead for state and local programs.

• Author: Fein, Geoff S.
• Position: Security beat: homeland defense briefs

If Congress approves the Bush administration's 2005 budget, many local governments will see a decrease of almost $800 million in funding for homeland security efforts.

Some experts predict that the 18 percent cut will be restored once state and local officials voice their displeasure with their representatives.

The Department of Homeland Security's budget also includes $8 billion for aviation security, radiation detection and biodefense.

The budget shifts $950 million away from grants, to state and local authorities. The grant stipulated that no state would receive less than .75 percent of total allocations. But that meant that states such as Wyoming would receive $13 in grants per capita whereas New York would receive $1.25, according to the report by the Civitas Group, a Washington-based consulting firm.

Of the money diverted away from the grant program, $725 million will be redirected to the Urban Area Security Initiative that provides grants to high-risk cities and assets based on threat assessment, writes Michael Hershman, Civitas president and CEO.

"If this shift takes place, it means that small and rural states will be relatively less important as buyers of homeland...