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There were no surprises in a recent Cincinnati Enquirer report that a lot of the anti-terror funds are going to waste. According to reporter Dan Horn, U.S. taxpayers spent about $60 million dollars in the past decade to equip Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky with trucks, armored vehicles, computers, bio-hazard suits and other gear meant to respond to a terrorist attack. But local officials are charging that a recent change in homeland security rules could render much of that expensive equipment useless. New government rules are shifting millions of dollars in maintenance costs from the federal government to cities, counties and towns that are unable to make these expenditures because of their own budget crises.
Without maintenance, all this expensive equipment will sit unused or fall into disrepair. “It creates all sorts of problems,” Hamilton County Commissioner David Pepper told Dan Horn.
“It’s either a massive cost shift to local governments or it means equipment will go to waste because we can’t maintain it.” Adding to an already bad problem, the new government rules appear encourage local governments to buy new equipment with federal money – which still is allowed – instead of repairing existing equipment.
According to Dan Horn’s report, the guidelines would allow local agencies to buy a new $9,000 air monitor, but they would forbid the purchase of a $150 replacement sensor to keep the monitor running. A new video system that costs $27,000 might be approved, but a $1,000 replacement bulb for the same system would be denied.
“It’s government at its worst,” Ed Dadosky told Horn. Dadosky is a district fire chief and homeland security coordinator in Cincinnati. “This is really hamstringing our ability to keep this up and running.”
Dadosky and other emergency management officials learned about the new rules in October in an e-mail from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which provides the federal money used to buy and maintain most of the region’s homeland security equipment.
Until now, Dadosky said, FEMA auditors signed off on many of the maintenance costs associated with past purchases.
Federal officials say the new guidelines clarify a policy that has been in place for years, and that local governments never should have counted on perpetual federal help with maintenance costs.
They claim they are studying the policy to determine whether it can be changed or improved. Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites        
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