Closing Bases in California
Before any military bases in California are closed, the Clinton Administration should compare the cost of keeping all or some of the bases open with the cost of closing them. The loss of taxes from military bases (employees) should be compared with the resultant costs of unemployment.
The main difference between military employment and military unemployment is that the military employees are big (many) taxpayers. The unemployed will be big tax users with over 100,000 more unemployed. A second layer of taxpayers will be eliminated if bases are closed: food and clothing suppliers, home builders and all the others supplying goods and services to military bases.
Closing military bases sounds like a real cost-saving procedure, but not when you compare the dollars lost in taxes with the additional cost of unemployment. Which will help the economy more?
WILL H. BARNHART
Rancho Cucamonga
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