PORTLAND (AP) - Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said Monday the federal government cannot afford to pay for the increased security needed to protect U.S. ports from terrorists.

"We need to talk to the private sector," Ridge said. "We don't have enough public money to do everything that needs to be done."

Ports and shipping companies are facing a July 1 deadline to have security programs in place for their docks and vessels or face potential fines.

The programs are based on regulations developed by the Homeland Security Department and the Coast Guard under the Maritime Transportation Security Act of 2002.

The federal government plans to spend nearly $3 billion on security programs this year but Ridge said "we can't go around using public money for every private sector need."

He noted the 360 ports protected by the Coast Guard do about $1 trillion in business every year.

Ridge was in Portland to announce that Oregon will receive about $40 million for security programs - $32 million for the state and another $8 million going directly to the Portland area.

In addition, Ridge said the Department of Homeland Security will grant $2.8 million to the Oregon university system to modify and reinforce buildings to resist earthquake damage on two main campuses, Portland State University and the Oregon Institute of Technology in Klamath Falls.

Bill Wyatt, Port of Portland executive director, said funding distribution locally is awaiting completion of additional grant applications but a number of agencies will share the money, including fire departments and other emergency response agencies.

Ports, however, likely will need more money to expand and maintain security, Wyatt said.

"For seaports in particular, we're starting from so far back it's going to be a challenge," Wyatt said.

Sam Ruda, a former Nike executive who now heads the port's maritime division, said some kind of user fees likely will be needed to help pay the cost of increased security.

"I'm not really expecting that the federal government is going to bear the burden," Ruda said.

The Port of Portland is the major railroad freight center for most of the West and is the nation's top export center for wheat shipped from as far as the Midwest. The port also is a major import and distribution center for automobiles, and handles a large portion of the West Coast container traffic after Los Angeles.

But Capt. Paul Jewell, the Coast Guard commander for Oregon and inland ports stretching all the way to Idaho, said Portland is not considered a strategic target.

"Who's going to blow up a ship full of grain?" Jewell said, noting the port has no public ferries or military installations, like Seattle, and no oil refineries that are more likely targets.

The main role of the Coast Guard in Oregon, he said, is to make sure cargo ships do not allow potential terrorists into the country posing as crew members.

"We're making sure that the people on board those ships are who they're supposed to be - that's my primary concern," Jewell said.

Laura Capps, a spokeswoman for Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry, said more federal funding would be available if the Bush administration had not changed tax laws.

"They can give a $1 trillion tax cut to the wealthiest Americans but they can't spend it on protecting ports," Capps said. "They talk a big game about protecting our ports and our borders, but they just don't back it up."