"There's some worry," said Kris Hamlet, financial officer for the state's homeland security office. "Now we're up against New York, California, Texas, Florida - states that have been upset in the past that some Western states are receiving more money per capita than others."

Public safety officials from densely populated states have bitterly decried a funding system that, since Sept. 11, 2001, has provided a base allotment to each state. That formula has resulted in per capita spending in rural states being significantly higher than in states with more people - and more potential terrorist targets.

Responding to those criticisms at a news conference Tuesday, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said grants would no longer be treated as "party favors to be distributed as widely as possible, but a funding program that is dedicated to a risk-based set of priorities."

One indication of how the federal government judges priorities was contained in a list released Tuesday of 46 locations eligible to receive annual Urban Area Security Initiative grants. Salt Lake's metro area was not on the list.

"Every year they tell us Salt Lake is right on the verge of being included and every year we make it on the other side of not being included," Hamlet lamented. "You look at some of the cities on that list and you think that Salt Lake could be ahead of them."

But as Utah officials set aside their disappointment with being left off the urban initiatives list once again, they found hope in Chertoff's promise that, in accessing each's state's need for other grants, risk of terrorist attack would not be the only factor considered.

"It is encouraging," said Michael Stever, Salt Lake City's homeland security coordinator.

"In the olden days," he said, "our battle cry was an all-hazards approach to emergency management, and all hazards included criminal events, terrorism, technological disasters like hazmat spills and things Mother Nature sends to us," like earthquakes and blizzards.

Following the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Stever said, all others disasters "played second fiddle" to terrorism. As a result, public safety officials found sometimes creative ways to show that the equipment and training they wanted for SWAT teams, rescue squads and patrolling officers would have value in a potential terrorist attack.

Apparently in response to the lapses in preparedness evident in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, new federal guidelines for homeland security grants encourage - and in some cases demand - a "dual-use" purpose for new equipment and training.

Chertoff, though, warned that program managers would crack down on some of the more dubious ways federal money has been spent in the past. Among Utah's past purchases with homeland security money: more than $300,000 worth of laptop computers, $500 sets of binoculars in Wayne County, and ATVs and snowmobiles for Daggett County Sheriff's deputies.

"You may be at risk, but we have to ask ourselves, 'are you going to spend this money wisely?' " Chertoff said. "The fact of the matter is, the public has a right to expect that even when a city is in a high-risk category, the money it gets under this program has to be spent wisely and effectively."

mlaplante@sltrib.com