The Base Realignment and Closure Commission has complex decisions to make about hundreds of bases targeted by the Department of Defense and relatively simple ones to make about the Defense Finance and Accounting Service centers, including one in Limestone.

For DFAS, it must ask two sets of questions: Will the quality of work and the cost of operation be greater or lesser under Defense’s proposed consolidation of services? And, does economic recovery from previous base closings matter to the current round?

The Pentagon also cites security as a reason for shutting down 21DFAS centers and concentrating operations in Colorado, Indiana and Ohio, but the department should first provide evidence of a problem before offering consolidation as a solution. Estimated savings by closing the centers is $158 million between fiscal years 2006 and 2011, with annual savings of $120 million thereafter; the number of personnel needed and other costs, however, have yet to be made public.

According to Defense records, the square-foot cost of operations at the facilities scheduled for expansion – Denver ($9.15), Columbus ($8.27) and Indianapolis ($11.11) – is considerably higher than the cost at Limestone: $4.39 per square foot. In addition, locality pay, which is the adjustment to government salaries based on area salaries, is lower in Limestone and other rural areas than in the cities scheduled for expansion.

As for quality, Limestone has grown and been given expanded responsibilities precisely because it was a low-cost, high-accuracy center. It has not only won government awards for its service but two years ago received a $6 million expansion contract. It and a DFAS center in Dayton, Ohio, also scheduled to close, currently do all of the accounting for the Air Force.

Though a date for his visit is so far unscheduled, retired Air Force Gen. Lloyd Newton, one of the four base closure panelists who visited Maine recently, will be back this summer to visit Limestone. What he will see is a former Air Force base transformed to civilian use by a lot of hard work and a steady stream of federal support. Previous base closures were made less painful and ultimately more acceptable by locating needed government services at those bases, providing jobs and attracting other businesses to these new centers. Loring has been successful, but the loss of 360 jobs associated with DFAS would be a serious set back. More broadly, communities nationwide will be less likely to trust Defense recovery plans if they know Defense could cancel them a couple of years later.

Eventually – perhaps before the September deadline – the Pentagon may release all of the details that went into its closure decisions, and Maine will have a better idea of how Limestone compares with the consolidated bases. So far, however, the closure plan seems (forgive us) baseless.