City Says 9/11 Trials Will Cost $200 Million a Year
New York Times ^ | January 6, 2010 | Al Baker
Posted on Wednesday, January 06, 2010 4:04:53 PM by reaganaut1
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The Bloomberg administration has placed the price for security operations for the trials of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and other terrorism suspects connected to the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, at more than $200 million a year, which would make it by far the costliest security operation for a single event in the city in recent memory.
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg outlined the city’s projected security expenses in a two-page letter that was sent on Tuesday to Peter R. Orszag, the director of the federal Office of Management and Budget. The letter, which seeks federal reimbursement for the full costs of providing security for the trials, was released by City Hall officials on Wednesday.
In the letter, the mayor said the cost for security operations would be $216 million for the first year and $206 million per year in subsequent years. Much of the expense — about $200 million each year — would be for personnel, the mayor wrote.
The rest of the money would be directed to equipment-related expenses of $12.5 million in the first year and $2.5 million in any subsequent years.
Although the mayor stressed that the city needed the “federal government to shoulder the significant costs we will incur and ease this burden,” he did not argue that the trials should not be held in New York.
Mr. Bloomberg also sought to cast the cost estimate in a realistic light, comparing it with the $50 million spent on security for the Republican National Convention in 2004.
However, with security for the coming trials necessitating coverage “around the clock over a period of years,” as the mayor wrote, it was difficult to assess how a 52-week security package would cost just four times as much as security in 2004 for fewer than seven days.
(Excerpt) Read more at cityroom.blogs.nytimes.c om ...
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I could save the City $500 million dollars and would not even charge them for the .65 it would cost.
