July 19, 2007 Officials fear L.A. is being shorted City, county and state leaders say reduction in anti-terrorism funding jeopardizes the region. By Rachel Uranga and Lisa Friedman Staff Writers     Los Angeles-area leaders Wednesday blasted federal officials for slashing anti-terrorism funding to the region by 10percent even as new reports suggest that the terrorist al-Qaida network is strengthening and may be poised for another U.S. strike.     Under the plan, the Long Beach-Los Angeles region - a previously acknowledged 2002 terrorist target - will get $73million, or $8 million less than last year.     Noting that areas like Orange and San Diego counties saw increases, Los Angeles-area officials warned of undermining efforts to build intelligence gathering, upgrade radio communications and train hundreds of officers in anti-terrorism.     "The L.A. region, indisputably, remains one of the nation's top terrorist targets," Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said, backed by Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca, LAPD Chief William Bratton and Long Beach's chief of police and mayor.     "This jeopardizes our homeland security and threatens our ability to finish much-needed projects."     Competitive pressures and a new process for allocating money led to cutting Los Angeles' allocations. But Orange County will see a 13 percent increase and San Diego will get $16 million - twice as much as last year.     "Los Angeles has been socked in the gut; it's not acceptable," said City Councilman Jack Weiss, who chairs the city's public safety committee.     Sacramento's funding also was slashed from $7.3 million to $4.1 million.     "Los Angeles is the largest city in the most populous state in the nation, and Sacramento is the capital city. Both face significant risk and deserve more funding, not less," Sen. Dianne Feinstein said.     The money was part of $1.7 billion in grants doled out Wednesday by the Department of Homeland Security, $411million of which was preserved for major metropolitan cities like Los Angeles, New York and Chicago that face the highest risks of terrorism.     This year for the first time the bulk of the money was allocated based on risk assessments. But DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff warned against making comparisons against past years.     "These grants are meant to be investments in capital. They are meant to build capabilities. They are not meant to be annuities or entitlements where you get the same amount every year like a Social Security check," he said.     Chertoff pointed out that California received a total of $95.7 million in state grants this year, more than any other state.     But Villaraigosa, who had lobbied in Washington for more homeland security money, called it an arbitrary political formula.     "Spreading our resources across the 50 states by some political formula based on who's got the biggest elbows, we are spreading ourselves dangerously thin," he said.     The mayor noted L.A. is the nation's second-largest city, the center of entertainment and nearly half of the country's imported goods flow through the area's ports.     Villaraigosa said he called Chertoff to express his frustration.     Villaraigosa said he told Chertoff, who is scheduled to come to Los Angeles on Friday, that the inconsistent stream of funding puts the city at increased risk.     Since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, the LAPD's counter-terrorism division has arrested 250 people in what they classify as terrorism-related disruption ranging from marriage fraud to gun running.     "The president has used the Library Tower as an example of a real terrorist target, but his administration won't follow through with real security funding for Los Angeles. It doesn't make sense," Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuņez, D-Los Angeles said.     "I'm not happy about it," Board of Supervisors Chairman Zev Yaroslavsky said. "Southern California is a No. 1 target and we've been carrying a lot of the load on local taxpayers' backs since 9-11 and we were hoping there would be a new day in recognition of the primacy of Los Angeles and Southern California as a potential target."     Staff writers Troy Anderson and Harrison Sheppard and City News Service contributed to this article.     Copyright 2007 Los Angeles Newspaper Group