Pain, Yes -- but Why Devastation? : California could get clobbered by base closings

Closing military bases is one of those things that causes little pain in the abstract but a lot in reality. Yes, the military must be dramatically cut back as America adjusts to the post-Cold War era. Yes, closing bases is one way to achieve billions of dollars in savings, money that could be directed to other programs or to deficit reduction.

All that said, California, and especially Southern California, can ill afford another major hit to its economy. Defense Secretary Les Aspin should take that fully into account this week as he prepares a final list of proposed base closures for the Base Realignment and Closure Commission, which will make its recommendations to President Clinton by July 1.

Nine of the 30 major bases--nearly one third--reportedly on Aspin’s list of closures are in California, including three in Southern California: El Toro Marine Corps Air Station, Long Beach Naval Shipyard and March Air Force Base in Riverside County. Gov. Pete Wilson has said that the impact of closing all nine bases could cost the state 80,000 jobs and $4.5 billion in lost wages and contracts.

Ready or not, California obviously must take its fair share of military cutbacks. But it is still reeling from the last round of base closures announced by President Bush in 1991, in which 18 of 34 bases in the state were targeted. Among them was Tustin Marine Corps Air Station, slated to close in 1997.

The base-closure commission has been ordered in the current round of cutbacks to take into account not just the potential savings to the federal budget but the impact of closures on the local economy. In this respect, Southern California must be viewed as a special case. Besides base closures, it has been hit hard by defense-industry cutbacks. These cutbacks have cost the area tens of thousands of jobs and been a major factor in Southern California’s slow recovery from the recession, which is beginning to ease in other parts of the state and the rest of the country.

Signaling that he understands how these bases contribute to the local economy, President Clinton has pledged $500 million in federal dollars for job retraining and other programs in areas of the country that are most affected by defense cutbacks. Southern California certainly deserves a substantial share of those funds.

President Clinton has also acknowledged California’s importance to a full recovery of the U.S. economy. That being so, great care must be taken to ensure that the state’s special needs are given a high priority when it comes to base closures. Decompressing California’s economy too quickly from its historic role in the nation’s defense could prove counterproductive to the nation as a whole. And that’s the gentlest possible way we can think to put it.