The battle against base closures: state lawmakers were prepared to fight the most recent round of recommended closings of military bases.

Maine's Speaker John Richardson was stunned when the Department of Defense in May 2005 recommended closing 33 major military bases as well as a host of smaller facilities across the country and realigning another 22.

"I was pretty sure that we were going to get hit in one way or the other," says Richardson, who was term limited at the end of 2006, "but I never thought it would be as bad as it was."

Even though the changes proposed by DOD affected all 50 states in ways both large and small, Maine was among a handful that were particularly hard hit. The DOD list that was sent to the Defense Base Closure and Realignment (BRAC) Commission, contemplated closing the state's Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery, the Naval Air Station Brunswick and the Defense Financing and Accounting Service, housed at the former Loring Air Force base.

The potential loss to Maine if BRAC followed DOD's recommendations was significant: more than 6,000 civilian jobs with a yearly payroll exceeding $115 million, not to mention a secondary impact on businesses and commerce near the three bases.

"There were a lot of states that suffered losses as a result of this most recent BRAC round," says Richardson. "But on a per capita basis, we were the heaviest or second heaviest hit in the nation. And that was devastating."

FIGHTING BACK

In a process that would soon be played out in dozens of states responding to potential closures, Richardson and other state and local officials, including Maine's congressional delegation, decided to fight back. They prepared an appeal arguing that all three of the bases were important to the nation's defense.

All the while Richardson, among others, steadfastly avoided the temptation to frame the state's case before BRAC as a matter of economic impact, however serious that might have been.

"The economic hit to a state is usually what gets all of the media attention, but in the end it doesn't hold much water with the BRAC people," says Connecticut Senator Cathy Cook, who was also working with a coalition of state leaders to reverse a Pentagon recommendation calling for the closure of the New London Naval Submarine Base in Groton.

"At the end of the day, when a base is slated for closure, there really is only one thing you can do," says Cook, "and that is to make the argument one of national defense, of why and how this or that base is strategically important."

Cook says the argument has to include what a local base does and whether or not it is vital to national security. "In our case, because Groton was a combination submarine base and school, we didn't think that would be such a difficult argument to make," she says.

Meanwhile in Texas, potential closures included the Red River Army Depot in Texarkana, Naval Station Ingleside on Corpus Christi Bay, the Brooks City Base in San Antonio and the Lone Star Army Ammunitions Plant near Texarkana.

"I really could not figure out what DOD people were thinking with those recommendations," says Texas Senator Juan "Chuy" Hinojosa, who immediately vowed to do whatever he could to save the state's bases. He took part in a BRAC Response Strike Force that included representatives of more than a dozen state agencies and reviewed the data that the Pentagon used to make its recommendations.

"The thing that really got to me initially was that here we are in the middle of a war, and they are closing down military bases, including a strategically important one on the Gulf Coast that might be important in that effort," says Hinojosa.

In the weeks ahead, Hinojosa, not unlike his colleagues in Maine and Connecticut, participated in preparing his own state's response to BRAC. He pointed out the strategic importance of Ingleside, which is in his district and is the home for ships belonging to the Navy's Mine Warfare Command, with more than 3,000 military, civilian and contract employees.

CAREFUL EFFORT

Although casual observers may have thought that the various state-sponsored campaigns to prevent the closing of local bases throughout the spring and summer of 2005--usually involving a wide number of legislative members and leaders--seemed uneven and rather patchwork, they represented a sophisticated effort months in the planning.

"We had actually been working for more than a year leading up to the announcement of the base closures," says Cook in Connecticut. "And that time was devoted to preparing and gathering information, studying closely how the closure process worked in other states, and doing anything we could think of to present our case in a way that the BRAC commissioners would understand and appreciate."

"The local and state response to the closure announcements was really an incredible thing to see," says Tim Ford, who heads the Washington-based Association of Defense Communities, an organization that represents communities and states with a military presence.

"It was the responses from state and local officials, which were very professional and powerful, that ultimately made the difference with the BRAC Commission as to whether or not a base would, in the end, be slated for closure," says Ford.

"In fact," continues Ford, "a whole industry of experts and consultants has grown up in the states to respond to and deal with base closings. It is no longer a matter of simply getting hit with the news that the largest base in your state is closing and hoping for the best. Now the states are prepared with their best arguments, often based upon their experiences in previous BRAC rounds, and are really a powerful force to be reckoned with."

IT WORKED IN SOME PLACES

In the end, many state efforts paid off. After a couple of months of public hearings that included dozens of presentations from state lawmakers, the BRAC commission approved only 86 percent of DOD's original recommendations. It closed the Naval Air Station Brunswick, Naval Station Ingleside and the Brooks City Base in Texas, along with the historic Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., Fort Monmouth in New Jersey and Fort Monroe in Virginia.

Thirteen DOD base closure recommendations were outright rejected, including the Defense Financing and Accounting Service and Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Maine, the New London Naval Submarine Base in Connecticut, and the Red River Army Depot in Texas, which will be realigned.

"I think ultimately the process was a good one for us, not only because we came together and responded to a crisis, but also because of the how the BRAC Commission itself did business," says Maine's Richardson. "The process that they had in place was really quite transparent and fair. We felt that we received fair consideration and were able to state our case in a way that made us feel that at least we got a fair shake, which was important."

THE AFTER EFFECTS

But what has happened after the BRAC Commission issued its final decisions, adds Richardson, has become equally important for the states, especially when the discussion centered on what to do with a soon-to-be abandoned base.

"State lawmakers naturally have played a part in the battle to keep a base open," says Richardson. "But equally challenging is what to do after a base is closed and you find yourselves involved with things like trying to put in programs that can help communities with economic assistance to replace the loss of economic activity." In January, Richardson was named head of Maine's Department of Economic and Community Development.

Communities do in fact survive and in some cases thrive in the years following a base closure. The Charleston Naval Base in South Carolina closed in 1993 and is now home to 4,500 jobs at a combination of private, state and federal entities on the old base. Fort Devens in Massachusetts, closed in the 1991 round, has emerged as a vibrant industrial park employing more than 3,000 people, while the old Pease Air Force Base in New Hampshire, also closed in 1991, has been designated by the Department of Commerce as a Free Trade Zone and is the site of several high-tech companies as well as Southern New Hampshire University.

According to a study conducted by the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas, a 1995 BRAC realignment of the Red River Army Depot has resulted in the redevelopment of more than 700 acres for private, commercial and industrial use.

The former home of the Chase Field Naval Air Station, south of San Antonio, which was closed during the 1991 BRAC round, has taken longer to redevelop but is now being used for the military contractor Kay and Associates for work on Blackhawk helicopters.

Senator Hinojosa is hopeful that the land used by the soon-to-close Naval Station Ingleside will similarly have a new life, one that supports the Corpus Christi economy.

"It could be turned into an industrial park or a medical school or even be redeveloped and used for the Port of Corpus Christi," says Hinojosa, who adds that he has successfully pushed for legislation that would permit the community surrounding Naval Station Ingleside to apply for loans for economic development and assistance.

"We have also set up a fund to provide them with infrastructure money, should they need it, for more roads as well as public services," says Hinojosa.

Equally important is how the states are responding in the wake of a series of base realignments and consolidation. "What we are seeing now is a whole range of impacts in what we call the 'mission growth' area," says Ford of the Association of Defense Communities. These are areas where significant growth results from a BRAC recommendation--in some cases, as many as 10,000 people will work and live in an area that once was rural with little population.

THE POPULATION IMPACT

What is happening at Fort Benning in Georgia is a case in point. The BRAC Commission voted to relocate the Armor Center and School of Fort Knox, Ky., and the U.S. Army Reserve Center of Columbus, Ga., to Fort Benning. The result will mean a huge new influx of workers and residents not only in the vicinity of Columbus, the largest city near Fort Benning, but also in communities in eastern Alabama some 20 to 30 miles away.

"We are conservatively looking at an influx in this area of up to 30,000 or 40,000 people," says Alabama Representative Duwayne Bridges, "which will be something like a series of new towns coming up over night."

"There is going to have to be new infrastructure like we have never seen around here before," he says. "There will be thousands of children coming into the school system, so we are going to have to build new schools." Bridges says infrastructure must be greatly expanded for new sewage systems, roads, electricity and houses to accommodate this growth.

State officials expect the same kind of explosive growth from the Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland. The BRAC Commission approved a plan by the DOD to relocate several commands to Aberdeen, including the Army Test and Evaluation Command headquarters, as well as a large communications and electronics command currently located at Fort Monmouth, N.J.

The result: The town of Aberdeen and the surrounding area can expect to see an increase, both directly and indirectly, of nearly 10,000 jobs at the Aberdeen Proving Ground in the next five years.

Similarly, state officials in North Carolina expect to see more than 30,000 people moving into the counties surrounding Fort Bragg since BRAC approved a DOD recommendation to relocate the headquarters of the U.S. Army Forces Command as well as the headquarters of the U.S. Army Reserve Command there.

"The explosion in new personnel and contractors coming in from other places to areas that often are mostly rural is going to be both historic and significant," says Ford of the Association of Defense Communities. "That is a transformational kind of growth that can only be managed with help from both state and community leaders."

FEDERAL HELP

States and communities can also draw upon the resources of the Office of Economic Adjustment, established by the DOD to provide support for communities that have been affected by a base closure or realignment.

As a result of earlier BRAC closures, the Office of Economic Adjustment has awarded more than $120 million in grants to communities and in recent months has been responding to local needs as a result of the 2005 BRAC round. The 11-county area in North Carolina, for example, that will be most affected by the expansion of Fort Bragg received a $1.1 million grant in October to plan for the base's growth.

"Knowing that a certain amount of federal money is available for us to draw on because of the decisions made by BRAC is important," says Texas Senator Hinojosa. "And for some communities it may initially be the one thing that helps them keep their heads above water.

"But," continues Hinojosa, "ultimately how these areas fare in the years ahead is going to depend much less on what they get from Washington and more on whether or not the states and local governments can really get out there and hustle. That's what is really going to make a difference as time goes by."

Connecticut Senator Cook agrees. "We are done with this round of BRAC decisions," she says, "but a future Congress may want to save money at the Pentagon and achieve efficiencies and do something like joint-service basing, setting off another round of closures and expansions.

That's why it's important for states to be prepared for the future. "In many ways, BRAC is now an ongoing thing for us. In fact, we are already getting ready here for the next round," says Cook.

For Further Reading

The National Conference of State Legislatures and the Department of Defense are producing a series of guides to help legislators, local government officials, land conservation organizations and military personnel manage development near military bases.

The first booklet, issued jointly by NCSL and the Department of Defense Sustainable Ranges program, is "Working With State Legislators: A Guide for the Military and State Legislators."

It explains how state governments and the U.S. military share responsibility to ensure the health and safety of residents living near military installations without compromising training needs that are critical to protect our nation's security at home and abroad.

The series is available online at www. denix.osd.mil/SustainableRanges, or by contacting: Range Sustainment Outreach Coordinator DUSD (I&E), 1225 South Clark Street, Suite 1500, Arlington, Va., 22202

NCSL has also completed the draft of a booklet for the Defense Department on installation sustainability practices dealing with land use, energy and environment, and cost-sharing for communities facing changing military missions. The booklet is due out this spring.

Garry Boulard, a frequent contributor to State Legislatures is a free-lance writer from Albuquerque, NM.