CA Bay Area port security funding to double in 2008

Via the Oakland Tribune:

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Monday praised the U.S. Department of Homeland Security for its dramatic increase in funds to California under a new system that focuses on urban areas most likely to be attacked.

“Federal officials clearly understand the unique risks facing our state and recognize the significant work that has been done in California so far,” the governor said.

Under the Transit Security Grant Program, the Bay Area’s funding increased 104 percent to $28.2 million of the $388.6 million nationwide program, which increased $117 million over the previous year. Last year, DHS allocated $13.8 million to the Bay Area.

The Bay Area will also get $25.5 million from the Port Security Grant Program for fiscal year 2008, or 82 percent more than the $14 million the region got in fiscal year 2007. Nationally, DHS will award $390 million in port security grants.

This is in stark contrast to 2006 when the Ports of Oakland and San Francisco got short-changed by DHS. The main reason for the changes in funding?

The funding change is built around DHS’s system of ranking urban areas by their risk of terror attacks. The Bay Area is one of eight Tier I metropolitan areas for transit, along with New York, Chicago, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, Boston, Atlanta and Philadelphia.

And they couldn’t have implemented this common sense system two years ago? In fact, why wasn’t this type of system implemented from day one?