Group sees a silver lining

A military base closure can certainly threaten the heart of a local economy — but it might not be the death knell communities fear it to be.

Those encouraging — some argue too encouraging — words from a watchdog group that monitors government spending are coming out this week right at the time the Pentagon is readying for a new round of closures.

Taxpayers for Common Sense in Washington, D.C., reports that unemployment levels in communities where bases have closed are lower and job growth also has exceeded the national average in the past 10 years.

Keith Ashdown, vice president of policy for the Taxpayers for Common Sense, told the Deseret Morning News on Thursday that communities are better off pre-

paring for a base closure than fighting it because, regardless of a community's lobbying efforts, few bases have been taken off the hit list.

"Do not expend all your resources fighting the closure," said Ashdown, one of the authors of "New Beginnings, How Base Closures Can Improve Local Economies and Transform America's Military."

"Simultaneously begin researching base redevelopment and energize community efforts toward designing a redevelopment plan. Without this head start, economic recovery will take far longer."

However, Utahns fighting to keep Hill AFB from the hit list, don't agree with the premise. Rick Mayfield, CEO of the Utah Defense Alliance, a group of business and government leaders organized to save Hill, said losing Hill's nearly $1 billion a year payroll would be devastating to the state. In all, the base provides an estimated $3 billion to $4 billion impact on the state's economy, he said.

But Ashdown said residents fearing a base closure shouldn't do so for several reasons:

• Communities that develop a good base reuse plan can return to prosperity quickly — some in one or two years, while others recover within five to seven years.

• As of October 2000, 21 communities had created more civilian jobs at their former bases than were lost due to closures.

• A 1998 General Accounting Office report showed the majority of communities with base closures have experienced an increase in average earnings and personal income.

Hill, one of three remaining Air Force logistics centers, primarily is a maintenance and repair depot, and while efficient before previous closings, it has increased its efficiency even more, Mayfield said.