COLUMBIA--A panel trying to head off possible base closings in South Carolina will ask for a $200,000 loan next week from the state Budget and Control Board.

The money would be repaid in July with half of the $400,000 the South Carolina Military Base Task Force expects from the Legislature in the 2003-04 budget.

Gov. Mark Sanford appointed the task force last month, renewing efforts that former Gov. Jim Hodges made before leaving office to spare the state from losing facilities and jobs in the next round of decisions by the federal Base Realignment and Closure Commission. A list of bases targeted for closure is due by May 16, 2005.

"This is going to be the mother of all BRACs," said retired Air Force Maj. Gen. James Gardner, one of the panel's leaders. A quick infusion of cash is needed. "It costs money to run these things," he said.

The money would be split among the four regions with bases, said Comptroller General Richard Eckstrom, the panel's other chairman.

Local governments and chambers of commerce already are raising and spending money to protect installations.

Charleston County's contingent on the panel said Charleston and North Charleston city governments are planning to put $50,000 each into their efforts to protect the Air Force base and Naval Weapons Station facilities located there.

Berkeley County supervisor Jim Rozier encouraged members of the panel to seek new operations aggressively, not just defend the ones they've got.

Charleston already may be under consideration for the return of a mine-sweeping operation, Rozier said.

Part of the committee's work will be recommending law changes. For instance, Gardner said the Legislature might need to consider laws to prevent development near bases that could limit expansion.

Along the way, South Carolina communities have to "sell the goodness" of the state's moderate weather and available land, Gardner said.

For instance, Charleston Air Force Base picked up traffic from Dover Air Force Base in Delaware when heavy snowfall in February damaged facilities.

"We didn't have that problem in South Carolina," he said.