State ‘ready’ for military job influx

TOWSON, Md. — Maryland lawmakers yesterday said the state is prepared to handle the influx of military jobs proposed by the Pentagon, but criticized plans to move an intelligence agency and a National Guard air unit out of the state.

Testifying in front of the federal commission studying the Pentagon’s recommendations on military base closures, Maryland officials said the state has the workers and infrastructure needed to absorb the 6,500 jobs that would come to Maryland.

“We are ready to handle any expansion that is bestowed upon us,” said Aris Melissaratos, Maryland’s secretary of economic development, who headed a state panel that worked on base closure issues.

Maryland stands to be a big winner from the Base Realignment and Closure process, a broad review by the military of its bases and facilities that the Pentagon hopes will save $48.8 billion over the next 20 years.

Under the Pentagon proposal released in May, Maryland bases such as Aberdeen Proving Ground in Harford County and Fort Meade in Anne Arundel County would grow significantly as jobs and military units are shifted from other bases across the country.

Many other states are fighting to keep bases slated for closure.

But Maryland would lose some jobs if the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency is moved from Bethesda to Fort Belvoir in Virginia and eight C130J transport aircraft are sent from the Martin State Airport Air Guard Station to Rhode Island and California.

The agency that drafts secret maps for the military would be moved in part because of concerns about security at its headquarters, located in a residential area of Montgomery County.

Under the Pentagon proposal, the 2,800 workers would join about 18,000 additional jobs slated for Fort Belvoir.

Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski, Maryland Democrat, said the mapping agency should instead be moved to Fort Meade near the National Security Agency. That would combine the two top secret agencies at an already secure site and help alleviate an expected crush of people at Fort Belvoir.

“I want this country to have the best technical agency we can produce and not the worst traffic jam we can produce,” she told the commission at a hearing at Goucher College.

Maj. Gen. Bruce Tuxill, head of the Maryland National Guard, criticized the proposal to move the C130Js, which are staffed by about 395 Guard members, away from Martin State Airport.