O.C. PERSPECTIVE : Decisions on Tustin Base Must Be Sound : It will pay to read the fine print in this particular deal. Making the property private is not as simple as it might seem.

As a result of last Sunday’s decision by the federal Defense Base Closure and Realignment Commission, the Tustin Marine Corps Air Station has become the only Marine Corps facility in America scheduled for closure.

I find myself with scant company among my colleagues in the Congress when I endorse the closing of a base in my own district. But as chairman of the Congressional Grace Caucus, organized to enact just such cost-saving recommendations of the Grace Commission as closing unnecessary military bases, I have tried to keep my focus on the Pentagon’s assurance that relocating the Tustin base can save enormous sums for taxpayers.

Specifically, the Defense Department estimates that combining Tustin’s air operations with helicopter groups at Camp Pendleton and eventually moving most of those to a new air station to be built at Twentynine Palms will cost about $609 million. That cost would be offset, the Pentagon said in its initial recommendation, by selling the Tustin land for an anticipated $500 million, with the balance coming from the economies of realignment, estimated at $30 million each year.

What is more, once the property was sold, it would be added to the county tax rolls, generating an estimated $5 million a year in property taxes alone. And once it is put to private use, we could expect it to generate more tax revenue through sales taxes, income taxes and other levies.

Anyone familiar with Orange County’s public health problem--one that stems from the fact that we have no county hospital--can appreciate the value of these additional tax revenues. In fact, local taxes generated by private ownership of the Tustin base would be more than enough to pay the annual operating deficits of UCI Medical Center.

At the final meeting of the base closure commission Sunday, however, the commissioners made it clear that they understand that closing the Tustin base, if not handled properly, could become an elaborate and cruel hoax on taxpayers.

It would be that because, although privatizing the land will most certainly yield taxpayer savings, Pentagon procedures for disposing of “excess property” could prevent its ever being sold at all. In fact, even if the property is put to private use, the complicated process to dispose of it would take at least six years.

First, other branches of the military can opt to claim the property. Failing that, the Department of Housing and Urban Development and other providers for the homeless would have the next opportunity under the McKinney Homeless Assistance Act. If the property was still unclaimed, any other federal agency would then have the opportunity to buy it. Finally, if no federal agency stakes a claim to it, state and local governments could then apply to buy the property. (And in that event, Congress would have the final approval.)

Only should all of the above fail would the Pentagon sell the property to private buyers.

If the Tustin property is not privatized, then the base closure will end up costing taxpayers the better part of $1 billion--with added yearly upkeep expenses on the former base property to boot.

Worse, Marine Corps insiders now estimate that the Pentagon figure of $609 million to relocate the Tustin facility could be short of the real cost by more than $400 million because it takes into account only construction costs. It does not count the expenses of relocating personnel, their support facilities, and other “soft” costs. Combine that with local uncertainty about whether the Tustin land will be sold at all, and one has the makings of a fiscal disaster.

The answer to this dilemma should be clear: Before signing off on the Tustin base closure, the people of Orange County and all American taxpayers are entitled to know to a legal certainty that the base will be privatized.

In recent meetings with Jim Courter, base closure commission chairman, I stressed this point, and last Sunday, the commission qualified its closure recommendation by instructing the secretary of defense to find a private buyer and see to it that the sale proceeds go toward the cost of relocating the base. If there is any doubt on this score, I will introduce legislation to make things unmistakably clear.

The closing of the Tustin base can make sense by directing the hundreds of millions of dollars in needed facility improvements to a new location where the long-term viability of the base is assured. At the same time, Orange County’s tax base--in other words, our ability to help the neediest among us--can be much improved. But it pays to read the fine print in this particular deal. Having done so, I intend to exorcise the devil from the details before signing on the dotted line.