Vowing that nothing will change in the city’s aggressive but expensive strategy to protect city residents and infrastructure against acts of terrorism, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said his administration would continue to petition the Federal Homeland Security agency for additional anti-terror funding.

“We’re not here to change our strategy to suit anybody,” the mayor told reporters. “We’re going to do what we think is right, and if the burden falls solely on the taxpayers of New York City, that’s not good. But in the end, our No. 1 priority is to provide security, and I would argue that the level of expertise in the city, in all of the different first-responder agencies, is as good as anyplace you’ll find in the world.”

Bloomberg’s pronouncement came after the city’s elected officials cried foul and riled against Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff for slashing New York’s share of federal dollars for homeland security by 40 percent, while increasing security allocations to such states as Wyoming and Nebraska.

Senator Chuck Schumer was one of several New York elected officials who blasted Chertoff for what Schumer called a “betrayal at the top,” and demanded that the agency show how it arrived at its decision. Schumer said he would introduce legislation that would require the federal government to distribute homeland security funds for states based strictly on real terror risks rather than politics.

Sen. Hillary Clinton stood with Representative Peter T. King at a news conference on Long Island, June 3, to criticize the cut in aid to New York, and demanded that the White House take responsibility for Chertoff’s decision.

At a Congressional hearing and in a letter to the New York Congressional delegation, Chertoff defended his decision to reduce the city’s allocation from $207 million last year to $124.5 million this year by arguing that New York City has already received a great deal of federal funding after the 9/11 attacks, more than any other city. Chertoff has insisted that regardless of the outcry he would not change his mind on the decision.

Representative Vito J. Fossella of Staten Island said he is asking the White House and President Bush to intervene. “One, it’s the right policy to do in the short term,” Fossella said, “but over the long term I think the president really needs to set the example that when it comes to allocating homeland security funding it is going to be truly risk-based, it’s going to be threat-based.”

Meanwhile, other reports show that the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) plans to cut New York’s share of bioterrorism preparation budget by up to 15 percent.