Angus King: " I’ll bet them a lobster dinner they can't do it any cheaper "

Recently, former Governor Angus King, at the Portland Public Library, convened a roundtable he called Maine 2015. He collected some of Maine’s most well known economists and strategists to talk about the future — where Maine’s headed, and whether it’s going in the right direction. King organized this conference months ago, but it occurred in the new dawn of the BRAC announcements that 7000 jobs could be eliminated at three separate military facilities in Maine, and thus couldn’t avoid addressing that subject.

I wondered, after the fact, whether it was appropriate to imagine a Maine with any military facilities at all. Isn't that just wishful thinking? So I called Governor King on a Monday morning and asked him: Aren’t we fooling ourselves by planning for a Maine future with a substantial military job base?

King was more positive than a lot of commentators and people on the street. He took a sanguine approach: "Hope for the best," he governed, "plan for the worst."

"I think part of the base-closing plan, as it applies to Maine, will be restored," he said. "If I were to bet, I would bet they would restore the one up in Limestone. I think Portsmouth is the toughest of the three. But I’m not close to it." He went to great pains to tell me he didn’t have any "inside" information.

"They couldn’t do Limestone any cheaper," he reasoned. "I just don’t think there’s any way to do it more efficiently or cost effectively — I just can’t figure that out. If anything, they ought to be moving other offices up there.

"I’ll bet them a lobster dinner they can’t do it any cheaper."

Then he moved down the coast.

"The thing about Brunswick," he said, "is that it’s essentially the worst of both worlds. They’re mothballing the facility, but moving all the people to Florida — again, I have a hard time understanding the reasoning. The fact that they haven’t produced the data is pretty shocking.

"In 1995, we had the data the very same day. Now a month later, a month later to the day, actually, we still haven’t got the data. And this isn’t national security stuff . . . This is a short time-frame process. They have to have decisions to the President by September, and, as far as I know, we don’t have all the back up."

He noted that the savings in closing a base usually come in not having to keep up the facility, but if they're going to maintain Brunswick, and still pay the salaries of the personnel when they move to Florida, the savings would be minimal. "The savings are in getting rid of the costs of maintaining the facility," he emphasized. Plus, he noted, they just built a whole slew of new towers and such to deal with new technology, "And I think they’re going to have to do that in Florida again.

"You have to do a net-present-value analysis," he offered, whereby you factor in the depreciation of equipment, inflation, and any expected revenues into the equation. "My guess is you're going to come out with savings that are pretty minimal. Plus, you’ve strategically moved your force, and you’ve concentrated it in one place.

"Have these guys ever heard the words Pearl Harbor?"

"Plus," he said, "it’s got to be put in the context of Iraq.

"I think I read somewhere, the projected savings [of closing the Brunswick base] is about $1.5 billion over 20 years, and the War in Iraq costs something like a billion dollars every five days [a billboard in Times Square counts the cost at $177 million per day]. So in three days, Iraq is going to swallow the savings.

"On a net-present-value basis, it’s a negative. So it’s pretty disappointing.

"Let me add something about Brunswick, because I live there. Everyone talks about the economic effect, but I’ll tell you from living in Brunswick, there will be a real loss of community — these military people, they coach Little League, they’re involved in the churches, they’re involved in the schools, there’s some racial diversity. The Navy really enriches the Midcoast from a community standpoint.

"From a resident's perspective, it’s disappointing. I know how much those folks contribute. My son’s football coach is a chief petty officer, and that guy changed my son’s life. I don’t think the BRAC is going to make their decisions based on that fact. They're going to ask, 'Does this make economic sense.' But I think, unless the dollars are pretty compelling, they should really think twice about closing Brunswick. I believe in efficiency, but there has to be a looking at both sides of the formula. If the savings are minimal or insubstantial, then the costs in terms of local economies seem to outweigh it."

— Sam Pfeifle

On page 4 (click below), Pat LaMarche, the 2004 Green Vice-Presidential nominee, speaks out on governor Baldacci's role.