Maine bases among those under scrutiny

AUGUSTA – Congress has approved legislation to create a new commission that would examine military bases – including two remaining in Maine – and order closings or realignments in 2005.

As was the case with previous commissions, such as one a decade ago that led to closing Loring Air Force Base in Limestone, the president and Congress can accept or reject the committee recommendations as a whole but can not amend them.

“There is no indication any base up there [in Maine] is in anybody’s crosshairs, but the bases will be looked at as part of the process,” said Retired Rear Adm. Stephen Baker, a senior fellow with the Center for Defense Information. “They were last time, and they will be again.”

The Center is a Washington-based think tank that was founded in 1972 as an independent monitor of the Pentagon, and a self-described watchdog on wasteful defense spending. Baker said he and other analysts at CDI expected another effort at closing unneeded bases would be made by the Bush administration.

“I don’t think there can be any doubt that there is an excess of base capacity,” Baker said. “But I think both Brunswick and Portsmouth made a good case last time and I don’t see much change in the missions of either.”

Brunswick Naval Air Station is the home of long-range patrol aircraft that keep track of submarines and surface ships. The P-3 Orion aircraft based at BNAS also have been used for a wide variety of other missions including drug interdiction and maritime patrol in the Persian Gulf.

The Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery overhauls and refuels nuclear powered attack submarines for the Navy.

“I certainly am disappointed that these communities and the state will have to go through this again,” said Gov. Angus King. “It looks like my successor will have to spend the first few years in office, as I did, learning about submarines and the planes that hunt for them.”

King will leave office in just more than a year. He said the 1995 round of base closings was expensive for both the state and local communities.

“We will do what we need to do to get ready for this,” he said, “and this time frame will allow us to carefully plan for what needs to be done.”

Maine’s congressional delegation opposed the base closing legislation. Rep. Tom Allen serves on the House Armed Services Committee and for the first time in his career voted against the Defense Authorization bill, which passed in both House and Senate Thursday.

“There were a lot of important provisions in the legislation, but I could not support it because of the base closing provision,” he said. “This is going to create uncertainty in communities all across the country. This is not the way to deal with the problem of more bases than we need.”

Democrat Allen said the Bush administration should develop a list of bases it believes should be closed and recommend the action as part of the regular budget process.

“As America fights a two-front war against terrorists in Afghanistan and at home, I believe this is not the time to close additional bases,” said Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe, “particularly since none of the past four base closure cycles has delivered to taxpayers the anticipated savings.”

Snowe said the United States has closed a quarter of its military bases in the last decade, and it would be expensive to build a new facility should the changing needs of the military require additional bases.

The Bush administration has estimated that at least one of every five bases is not needed and that the military could save $3 billion a year by eliminating unneeded facilities. It estimates that $14.5 billion has been saved from closing 97 major bases and many smaller ones under previous base closing efforts.

“I am not sure the savings claims are accurate,” said Rep. John Baldacci. “I think there is some dispute over the size of savings that have been achieved.”

He said the only positive he could see in the base closing language in the current bill is the time frame. He said once the Pentagon develops the base closing criteria, states and communities will have sufficient time to develop their case in support of the facility.

“I think it’s clear we will have a lot of work to do,” he said. “We did in 1995 for both Portsmouth and Brunswick and we will have a lot of work to do again.”

Republican Sen. Susan Collins serves on the Senate Armed Services Committee and was a member of the House-Senate conference committee that drafted the base closing language.

“I opposed it in conference and I voted against it in conference,” she said. “I think it is a mistake to move forward with this when we do not know what our base needs are today, and what they may be in the future.”

Several small facilities as well as Loring Air Force Base have closed in Maine since the base closing process was started in 1988. The economic impact on the state has been significant.

“Just look at the census figures for Aroostook County,” said state economist Laurie LaChance. “There was a significant population loss and an impact on the entire state’s economy.”

LaChance said closing either remaining base would have an impact on the entire state. She said both have a significant payroll and with the purchase of goods and services in surrounding communities, the economic impact of each base is in the millions of dollars a year.

President Bush is expected to sign the measure, even though Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is not pleased that the base closing language does not take effect immediately. At a news briefing on Thursday, Rumsfeld said failure to start closing unneeded bases in 2003 means taxpayers’ money will continue to be wasted on those facilities. He said that money would be better spent for the war against terrorism.