5-STATE ALLIANCE FOR MILITARY JOBS GETS `SEED MONEY'.

Byline: Jim Skeen Daily News Staff Writer

An alliance of southwestern states being formed to help retain military jobs will receive $500,000 in state money, Antelope Valley legislators said Friday.

The appropriation is included in a Senate-Assembly budget conference report that will serve as the framework for the state's 1998-99 budget. The funding is intended as ``seed money'' to get the alliance off the ground, according to a statement from Assemblyman George Runner, R-Lancaster, and state Sen. W.J. ``Pete'' Knight, R-Palmdale.

The Southwest Defense Alliance is an organization of civic and political leaders aimed at supporting the Southwest Defense Complex - 12 bases in California, Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah that provide a mix of research, testing and training facilities and land, sea and air ranges. Edwards Air Force Base is a major component of the complex.

``I believe it's an incredibly important national asset,'' Runner said. ``We believe the state has to be aggressive in protecting that asset.''

As the U.S. military establishment shrinks, officials in California and elsewhere are worried about gradually losing bases, defense projects and personnel to other regions with more political clout. So they are doing some political organizing of their own to promote what they say are the real advantages the Southwest has over East Coast bases: better weather, uncrowded airways and open space.

The first organizational meeting was held in June in Phoenix, where attendees agreed to name local delegates to a conference scheduled Oct. 8-9 in Salt Lake City.

The state money will be used for helping organize the alliance as a nonprofit group, leasing office space, and paying for travel and other expenses.

The four other states in the alliance will be expected to provide matching funds.

The California bases in the proposed complex are Edwards Air Force Base, Point Mugu Naval Air Warfare Center, China Lake Naval Air Warfare Center, Vandenberg Air Force Base, the Air to Ground Combat Center at Twentynine Palms and the Fort Irwin National Training Center.

Other bases included in the complex are the Yuma Proving Grounds and Marine Corps Air Station in Arizona; Naval Air Station in Fallon, Nev.; the Weapons Tactical Center and Electronic Warfare Ranges at Nellis Air Force Base, Nev.; and the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico.

In a June 18 prelude to the Phoenix conference, congressional representatives from all the alliance states except Utah met with Jacques Gansler, the undersecretary of defense for acquisition and technology, and Patricia Sanders, the Pentagon's director of testing and evaluation, to discuss the Southwest Defense Complex.

The Defense Department officials made no commitments to the complex, but congressional staffers described the meeting as positive.