by Bradley Parsons
Staff Writer
Area legislators are fighting in the nation’s capitol to delay a 2005 round of military base closings, but plans are underway in Tallahassee that could turn closures next year to the State’s advantage.
The secretary of defense told Congress last week the country’s military bases were about 24 percent too large.The announcement was met almost immediately with opposition from representatives Cliff Stearns and Corrine Brown and Sen. Bill Nelson. Brown and Nelson are sponsoring legislation to postpone the closings to 2007.
But where the legislators see trouble for Florida’s 21 bases, the governor’s office also sees opportunity. The Pentagon is getting rid of bases but not necessarily people, and closed bases elsewhere could deliver more soldiers and sailors to Florida’s bases, said Pam Dana, director of the State office of tourism, trade and economics and one of Gov. Jeb Bush’s advisers on the Base Realignment and Closure process.
“BRAC is not a matter of downsizing personnel, it’s looking at excess structure, excess capacity,” said Dana. “We’re likely to see the realignment of troops from lesser–used installations to installations where missions and training can be combined, made whole. We’re working very aggressively to bring new missions into the state.”
While Brown and Stearns both denounced the closures as unnecessary and ill-timed given America’s ongoing war on terror, Dana said a strong case could be made that billions of dollars spent on extra bases could be better spent elsewhere.
“There’s some very strong rationale to why the government wants to reduce excess capacity,” said Dana. “Excess capacity means you have to invest a tremendous amount of resources to provide security and maintenance. Perhaps that money could be used to increase military pay or provide better training or equipment.”
Dana said Bush’s first priority would still be to keep Florida’s current bases intact. Statewide, the military is estimated to spend $44 billion. More than $115 million of that money is spent in Northeast Florida. Dana said preserving those economics was a major reason Bush recently hired what it called “an all-star team” of defense industry lobbyists.
The State will pay lobbyists Piper Rudnick and Natter and Associates $50,000 monthly to champion its bases to the Pentagon. The team includes former defense secretary William Cohen, former congressman and author of the original BRAC legislation Dick Armey, and former commander of the U.S. Atlantic Fleet, retired four-star admiral Robert J. Natter, who is looking for a home in Jacksonville.
Legislators may be seeking a break in the process, but Dana said the governor’s office would continue to push full–speed to be ready in 2005.
“Just because there are discussions about postponing the process, we’re not going to slow down our preparations. To assume anything would be remiss on our part,” she said.
Natter worked previously with the governor’s office to relocate Navy training operations from Puerto Rico to Florida, including the U.S. Naval Southern Command’s move to Mayport. Dana pointed to those moves as evidence of the State’s momentum going into 2005.
She said the Navy recently named Eglin Air Force Base as a national asset and said the State was partnering with the defense department to invest money into environmentally sensitive land surrounding several bases.
“It all bodes well for us,” she said.