Arizona:

• "Arizona escaped this round of military base closings and consolidations with only a minor casualty - the Air Force Research Lab in Mesa is slated for relocation to Ohio. With it will be the loss of as many as 465 jobs, both direct and indirect, at the lab, which has an economic impact of about $74 million in the East Valley...."
  W. Valley has no time to rest on its laurels Luke has been spared closure, but there's more work to do, The Arizona Republic  (Click to read article)  Sept. 7, 2005

   

• "...Countrywide competition That underlines a significant fact. Arizona's bases will not be judged solely on their merits, but must compete with other states. And some of those states have been more aggressive and innovative than Arizona.

  Texas voters approved $250 million in bonds to upgrade military bases.

  Florida will lay out at least $5 million for a military-base retention grants program and has hosted joint training exercises at Eglin Air Force Base.

  Texas and New Mexico have a joint effort to protect a cluster of bases: Fort Bliss in El Paso; White Sands Missile Range near Las Cruces, N.M.; and Holloman Air Force Base near Alamogordo, N.M.

  Given this competition, some of Arizona's base defenders are worried the state's effort is coming late in the game.

  Although Arizona has long known that Davis-Monthan and Luke are at risk from encroachment, it is only now trying to find money to protect them, Browning said.

  "We are having the same conversation now we were having 10 to 12 years ago," he said."
  
  Click to read entire article: Can state save bases.  by David Madrid and Charles Kelly, The Arizona Republic, Jan. 11, 2004

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