10:29 PM PDT on Wednesday, May 31, 2006

Associated Press

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The cities of Seattle and Portland will receive fewer counterterrorism dollars this year than in 2005 as part of a federal effort to spread funding out to other communities facing threats.

Don Turriaga

A Washington State Ferry is escorted during a terror drill in Seattle's Elliott Bay.

Seattle will receive $9.15 million this year from the Homeland Security Department, down 22 percent from its $11.8 million allocation last year. Portland will get $9.4 million, down nearly 10 percent from $10.4 million last year.

New York City and Washington, D.C. - the two cities targeted in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks - also will get less money this year under a formula announced Wednesday by Homeland Security officials. Both cities will receive a 40 percent cut.

A spokeswoman for Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels criticized the latest grants.

"The money is not following the threat level," said Marianne Bichsel, a spokeswoman for Nickels. "You are looking at port cities such as Seattle getting less money, and cities with lower threat levels getting more."

Bichsel declined to name any other cities, but a chart prepared by Homeland Security shows that Louisville, Omaha, St. Louis, Charlotte, N.C., and other cities received sizable increases under the new formula.

"It doesn't seem to make sense," Bichsel said. "New York is down 40 percent? Washington? Again, the money is not following the threat level."

A spokesman for Portland Mayor Tom Potter said the city had just received the figures from Homeland Security and was reviewing the information.

The money allocated Wednesday includes a $125 million cut in overall funds available for the current fiscal year, officials said. In all, 46 cities will share $740 million in Homeland Security grants to prevent and respond to terror attacks and, to a lesser extent, other catastrophic disasters like hurricanes.