State Actions to Save Military Bases

With the Defense Department's announcement that it will close one-quarter of its military bases in 2005, states are scrambling to hold onto what they have.

What are states doing?

The Texas Legislature will send a constitutional amendment to voters in September asking for $250 million in bonds to improve infrastructure around its military facilities. That effort was started after an analysis in 2000 identified four bases as vulnerable to closure.

The San Antonio Military Missions Task Force is attempting to raise $1.25 million to protect bases.

In Florida, the state has spent more than $15 million since 1999 to improve defense infrastructure. It has purchased land, and continues to search for ways to acquire more land near military bases in order to stop encroachment.

Florida also has a grant program in place to save military facilities that could be closed, as well as an economic plan to help those communities decrease their reliance on national defense dollars.

Arizona has enacted legislation to protect its 83,000 Defense-related jobs and $5.6 billion in economic impact, although the state has not come up with any hard cash to apply to the problem yet.

Things are likely to heat up even more as the 2005 deadline approaches.

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