Beaufort's bases don't only benefit their local economies, they benefit the entire state's economy, and the allocation shows how important the bases are to the state, said Gov. Mark Sanford, who along with South Carolina Comptroller General Richard Eckstrom presented the money Monday to Beaufort Mayor Bill Rauch outside Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort.
"Fixing the budget up in Columbia rests on the amount of money coming into Columbia," Sanford said.
Beaufort County's three bases contribute about $454 million to local economy and provide 1,249 civilian jobs in the community, according to an economic impact study completed in August. If all three bases were to close, it would take nearly 20 years for the local economy to recover, the study shows.
The use of the $50,000 will be left up to local officials, Sanford said.
Some of the money could be used to pay for consultants and to cover travel expenses to Washington, D.C., to lobby for Beaufort's bases, said retired Marine Corps Col. John Payne, the vice chairman of the Greater Beaufort Chamber of Commerce's Military Enhancement Committee.
"It's not an inexpensive operation," Payne said, adding that the economic impact study cost $20,000. "But the stakes are too high to lose."
With about 25 percent of military installations scheduled to be closed in an effort to make the military run more efficiently, officials say nothing is safe, including the air station, Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island and Naval Hospital Beaufort.
"This is a very solid commitment to our effort," Payne said. "Our military people are not just an economic impact on our community, they are our family."
Sanford announced in May the allocation of $200,000 in state funds to be distributed to the Beaufort, Charleston, Columbia and Sumter areas in preparation for a Department of Defense mandated round of base closures in 2005.
The money was appropriated by the General Assembly from fiscal year 2003-04 general funds, with the fund transfer authorized by the State Budget and Control Board.
"This is a tough (base realignments and closures) round," he said. "(The air station has) everything, I think, people should be looking for in Washington."
Although the economic impact of the base's on Beaufort County is huge, that's not what the Department of Defense will be looking at when it decides which installations to close, focusing instead on each base's military value.
"What Congress is looking at now is how effective bases are in the war effort," said Eckstrom, who was named chairman of the governor's Military Base Task Force in March.
And the air station has proven itself, with squadron's flying missions over Afghanistan during Operation Enduring Freedom, over Iraq during Operation Iraqi Freedom and with deployments across the globe in places like Japan, Eckstrom said.
"This is not a training facility," Eckstrom said. "It's a fighting facility."
Eckstrom will be heading to Washington, D.C., with a delegation Nov. 18 to meet with Department of Defense and congressional leaders regarding the status of the base closure process, lobbying for money for military construction and telling the story of Beaufort's bases and their role in national defense, he said.
Rauch will also be going to Washington.
"These facilities are so much a part of Beaufort, you can't even think of Beaufort without thinking of these bases," Rauch said.
Beaufort's bases represent the war-fighting and joint capabilities, two Navy F/A-18 Hornet squadrons also call the air station home, that the Department of Defense are looking for, Payne said, which makes him confident that the bases can be saved if everyone involved works hard.
"I feel good about (saving the bases) if we do a good job telling our story," Payne said. "We have a good story to tell here in Beaufort."