Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld is scheduled to make his recommendations for military base closures May 13, and Governor Napolitano says rumors abound.

“That’s all they are — rumors,” she told reporters May 4.

Ms. Napolitano wrote to Mr. Rumsfeld on May 2, praising him for keeping a lid on the Pentagon’s deliberations to reduce the country’s military infrastructure by 25 per cent. He will forward his recommendations to the Base Realignment and Closure Commission (BRAC), which must send its findings to President Bush by Sept. 8, and the president will have until Sept. 23 to accept or reject the recommendations in their entirety.

If accepted, Congress will have 45 legislative days to reject the recommendations in their entirety or they become binding on the Department of Defense (DOD).

Arizona’s military installations are Luke Air Force and Davis Monthan Air Force bases, Yuma Army Proving Grounds, Yuma Marine Corps Air Station, Fort Huachuca and the Goldwater Range.

In a two-page letter, Ms. Napolitano lauds DOD for preventing leaks about recommended base closures and repeats earlier pitches she has made to the Pentagon about the value of Arizona’s military installations to the state and nation.

“You have taken special care to keep your internal deliberations confidential and your preliminary information about which bases might be on your final list from being disseminated,” she wrote. “This careful consideration has helped limit the number and nature of often damaging and inaccurate rumors.”

Governor: ‘Entertained’ By Rumors

Ms. Napolitano was asked about rumors she has heard concerning base closures.

“I am neither encouraged, nor discouraged,” she said. “I’m entertained.”

After a meeting with BRAC officials last December, the governor told Arizona Capitol Times the state presented a good case for keeping Arizona military facilities open. “Our mission was accomplished,” she said.

The Defense Department wants to close and consolidate one-fourth of its military infrastructure, saying many facilities are surplus, and closure or realignment would save $3 billion annually.

State’s Actions To Protect Bases

Over the past 23 years, the state has enacted land use and other restrictions near military bases to protect them from residential and commercial development.

The Legislature last year passed a ban on placement of any underground natural gas storage facility within nine miles of Luke, blocking El Paso Natural Gas Co. from storing highly flammable pressurized gas in salt domes near the base. It also approved $4.8 million to buy land near military airports to protect them from development. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., told Arizona Monthly magazine earlier this year, “I think it’s all going to boil down with the commission to one issue, and that’s encroachment. If we can assure the commission that we’ve taken steps, which I think have been very important to preclude further encroachment on Luke, then I think we’re going to be okay.”

BRAC has published the criteria it is using to evaluate military facilities. In summary, those criteria involve:

• Current and future mission capabilities and impact on operational readiness.

• Availability, condition and diversity of land, climate and associated airspace.

• Cost of operations and manpower implications.

• Extent and timing of potential costs and savings from closure.

• Economic impact on existing communities in the vicinity of military installations. (The combined direct and indirect economic impact of Arizona’s military industry was $5.7 billion per year, according to a study conducted by the Maguire Company and published in 2002.

• Ability of both existing and potential communities’ infrastructure to support forces, missions and personnel.

• Environmental impact. —