Below The Beltway

Inauguration Day is more than a month away, but it’s becoming clear that a massive turnout could pose problems for the District of Columbia:

Even for a city practiced at handling huge protests, marches and funerals, the inauguration of President-elect Barack Obama will put an unusual strain on local resources.

Because Washington has been allotted only about $15 million in federal money to help pay for all major events in the city for the entire year, local officials say they are most concerned about the costs of handling the more than 1.5 million spectators expected to come here, the largest crowd in inaugural history.

The $15 million is roughly $2.3 million less than the city spent just for President Bush’s second inauguration, in 2005, which attracted 300,000 spectators.

The amount also pales in comparison with the $50 million that Denver and St. Paul each received from the federal government for security for the Democratic and Republican national conventions this year.

“Our city has plenty of experience hosting the inauguration, and it cherishes being the seat of the federal government,” said Eleanor Holmes Norton, Washington’s delegate to Congress. “But it doesn’t come cheap.”

The expense comes as the city announced $130 million in budget cuts this month to deal with a revenue shortfall caused by the larger economic slowdown.

Most of the inauguration is financed by private donations and federal money, but the city takes on a range of responsibilities.

While the Secret Service will oversee security, including the sharpshooters, air patrols and monitoring of the city’s 5,000 or so surveillance cameras, most of the city’s 4,100 police officers will help direct traffic, operate metal detectors and escort dignitaries. An additional 4,000 officers from surrounding states have been called in to bolster the city’s force. It was unclear who would pay for them.

The city will also be responsible for providing more than 1,200 first responders to handle medical emergencies and several hundred sanitation workers to clean up after the festivities.

“If we get snow, things could get even more expensive,” said Dan Tangherlini, the city administrator, pointing out that in 1961, inauguration planners called out 700 troops with shovels and flamethrowers after an unexpected storm blanketed the city in eight inches of snow before John F. Kennedy’s ceremony. To clear the snow from the inauguration parade route can cost the city more than $1 million alone, Mr. Tangherlini said.

To make things worse, that $ 15 million is supposed to cover events for all of 2009:

Ms. Norton said she was trying to get an additional $15 million allocated to the city, since the $15 million already set aside was supposed to cover the cost of policing all large events throughout the year.

“If we spend all these funds on the inauguration,” she said, “how is the city is going to pay for events like the Fourth of July celebration and the antiwar marches that happen every year and are federal in focus?”

It’s not an unfair question when you think about it.