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Homeland Insecurity?

How secure is your little corner of the homeland? Correspondent Bob Orr has some details, and context, on the latest funding from DHS. -- Ed.


(CBS/AP)
Let the grumbling begin. Federal bean counters inside the Department of Homeland Security are still deciding how to carve up this year's grant pie,and already some New York politicians have decided the Big Apple is not going to get a satisfactory slice.

Their fears are based on what happened last year when both New York and Washington saw their homeland grant funding cut by 40%.

That was a big cut, but let's put it in context. Since 9/11, the two cities which were hit by al Qaeda terrorists have gotten nearly a third of ALL homeland monies – more than 800 million federal tax dollars to pay for counterterrorism equipment and programs.

The New York/North Jersey area has pocketed more than $600 million, three times as much as Los Angeles, and almost four times as much as Chicago.

Even with last year's cut the New York metropolitan area got $159 million, or about one in every five federal tax dollars doled out by the Department of Homeland Security to urban areas. And preliminary budget plans suggest that will likely be the case again this year.

Now, there's no debate the nation's largest metropolitan area and home of Ground Zero remains atop the terrorist wish list of possible targets. And there's little doubt that New York is a riskier place to be than, say, Tampa or Pittsburgh. But, then again Tampa got $9 million last year and Pittsburgh just half that much.

Still, some New York politicians insist they're getting ripped off again.

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