By Andy Solomon
March 31, 2003

Cities nationwide are spending about $70 million per week on additional homeland security measures due to the war in Iraq and the national high state of threat alert, according to a new 145-city survey by the U.S. Conference of Mayors released March 27. At that rate, a six-month period of war and/or high alert status would cost cities nearly $2 billion.

The costs reflected in this survey come on top of existing homeland security spending already underway or planned since 9/11. In addition, this survey only asked cities about direct costs, new money that had to be allocated for homeland security because of the war or threat alert level. These figures do not account for the huge indirect costs cities are experiencing. When a police officer normally assigned to anti-gang work is reassigned to guard a public building, that is an indirect but very real cost for a city and its residents. These figures also exclude major equipment purchases or other security needs that are not directly related to the current state of alert and homeland preparedness given the war. A prior survey found cities expected to spend more than $2.6 billion on homeland security between September 11, 2001 and the end of 2002.

Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley, chair of the Conference's Homeland Security Task Force, released the survey at a Washington press conference. He was joined by Conference Executive Director J. Thomas Cochran.

"Cities are America's frontlines in ensuring homeland security," said Mayor O'Malley. "And America's cities need help. They need direct homeland security funding and they needed it more than 18 months ago. We simply cannot fund robust homeland security on the proceeds of local property taxes and fire hall bingos."

Cities have received little direct federal assistance for homeland security since the attack on September 11. President Bush has proposed an additional $1.4 billion in aid for local governments, recommending that all but $50 million of that funding be channeled first through state bureaucracies.

"Cities continue to bear tremendous and growing costs to ensure security and protect their residents and businesses in these tough times," said Conference President Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino. "Cities urgently need direct, flexible financial assistance to meet their homeland security needs."

The 145 cities participating in the survey are geographically and politically diverse. They range in size from 30,000 to eight million people. As a group, they are spending more than $21.4 million per week on additional homeland security efforts because of the war and national "orange" threat alert level. The Conference's methodology projects a figure for the 1185 cities nationwide with population of more than 30,000 based on the data received from this sample pool of cities.

A summary of the survey and complete data from participating cities is available online at usmayors.org.