On May 31 the U.S. Department of Homeland Security allocated $1.7 billion in grants to state and local governments (PDF) using a new “risk and effectiveness-based approach to allocating funding.” Since September 11, 2001, $10 billion has already been spent on these grants.

“This approach aligns federal resources with national priorities and targets capabilities established by the Interim National Preparedness Goal to generate the highest return on investment in increasing the nation’s level of preparedness,” according to a DHS news release.

[...] it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity [...] — A Tale of Two Cities

Under the new risk-based formulas, the targets with the highest risk are supposed to be given more money. This is logical, but it puts state and local government officials in a strange position: If they want to get their hands on that loot, they have to be high risk targets. This has led to the following incredible situation in Erie County, PA:

The Department of Homeland Security just released its list of cities that are most likely to be the targets of terrorism. Although Erie didn’t make the list, emergency management officials say it would have been very helpful. — WICU

Read that again. They’re expressing regret over being deemed a low risk target. They’re so addicted to the idea of federal funding that they’d rather be considered a terrorist target and get the money to attempt to combat that terrorism than not be a terrorist target to begin with.

A short two hour drive away, in Erie County, N.Y., in a region which includes Buffalo and Niagara Falls, Erie County Executive Joel A. Giambra said that the 48.6% cut from the amount they got last year was “the wrong region at the wrong time.” But he doesn’t stop there. Giambra, outraged at the lack of funding, is doing his best to market the area as an attractive place for terrorists.

Specifically, Giambra said the Department of Homeland Security did not consider the following facts:

• The Niagara Power Project, linked to more than 400,000 jobs statewide, was not within the geographic area Washington considered.
• In assessing the local area’s risk calculation, Homeland Security failed to include the five international bridges, with their 13 million passenger crossings each year.
• The Erie and Niagara population was understated by 20 percent and the visitor population vastly underrepresented.
• The Homeland Security data reflects only 30 chemical and hazardous-material facilities, out of 648 such places in the two counties.
• And the list of special events doesn’t include Bills or Sabres games, the Allentown Arts Festival, America’s Fair in Hamburg or other such events.

– The Buffalo News

In one breath, Giambra pitches the region as a terrorist’s playground, and in another, he demands that the Federal government come and pay save them.

It’s a truly disgusting display of voluntary reliance on the federal government and another reminder of the depths to which politicians will go to control more American taxpayer money.