State economy banks on military might
Whatever criticism officials in Olympia are taking this political season over Washington’s overall business climate, at least one segment is getting their close attention — defense.
In a 100-page white paper released earlier this month, the state reviews in sometimes remarkable detail Washington’s advantages compared with other states as a location for U.S. Air Force, Army and Navy installations. Some facts are surprising.
Did you know, for example, that we have a clean electromagnetic spectrum that makes it easier for military units to practice electronic warfare? That flight times to Berlin for C-17 transports based outside Tacoma at McChord Air Force Base are less than two hours longer than those for all but three bases in the East or Midwest? Or that warships leaving Everett can reach South Korea less than a day after the arrival of others from Pearl Harbor?
Some strain credulity. Can 90 percent of the highway lane miles in Washington truly be rated in good or better condition? And if so, why do the unbearable 10 percent run right through Spokane?
But the most important numbers relate to the military’s huge place in the economy of Washington. The bases generate $7.2 billion in direct and indirect earnings annually. That’s almost 6 percent of all income in the state. The bases support 188,000 jobs. And all that money does not end up only in counties like Spokane fortunate enough to host a base.
“The impacts spread way beyond the bases and the area around the bases,” says Chris Rose, the policy adviser to Gov. Gary Locke who coordinated preparation of the study.
That was a surprise, he adds, and so was the number of relationships between the bases and state and local officials on issues ranging from energy to historic preservation to education. All the agencies must be made more aware of how each relates to the bases, Rose says.
Washington, he notes, has already taken helpful steps towards alleviating one of the military’s major concerns; encroachment by surrounding development. Locke sought, and the Legislature passed, a bill that will make it much harder to develop property adjacent to the bases. Rose says the state is even discussing the purchase of some already developed property of concern to officials at Puget Sound-area bases.
Worry over the posture of Washington’s bases also prompted Locke to seek $500,000 to help military communities respond to inquiries for information.
The state study, and a smaller one prepared last spring by the Spokane Regional Chamber of Commerce, was prepared in response to another U.S. Department of Defense Base Realignment and Closure process. The military wants to shut down 20 percent of its existing installations in order to improve efficiency and save money. Washington was relatively unscathed in four closure rounds conducted since 1988, and officials would like to keep that streak going.
Recommendations as to which bases should be closed will be ready sometime in mid to late 2005.
Fairchild Air Force Base would seem to be safe, given its good condition, variety of missions, and abundance of space. Spokane officials hope to exploit those advantages and snatch additional missions from bases that will be closed. The Air Education Training Command already has Fairchild on a short list of bases where 600 jobs could be added.
The state estimates almost 13,000 Spokane County jobs are directly or indirectly related to base activity. About 9 percent of all economic activity in the county is base-related.
The Spokane Chamber is trying to identify banks and developers who can help respond to the military’s desire to hand responsibility for more housing to the private sector. The base, now dependent on wells, could also use a second source of water.
Rose says he knows of no other state that has so far produced anything as comprehensive as the white paper, entitled “Washington State and its Partnerships with the United States Military Installations.” The report is available on-line at www.ofm.wa.gov/reports/military/
militarypartnership.pdf.
“I was a very good learning experience for all of us,” Rose says. “We have an enormous stake in these military bases.”
Spokane is sold on their importance. The state is sold. They just need to sell the Pentagon.