BEAUFORT, S.C. - Beaufort has received a financial boost from the state to help fight the next round of military base closures.

Beaufort's bases benefit both the local and state economies, said Gov. Mark Sanford, who along with state Comptroller General Richard Eckstrom presented $50,000 Monday to Beaufort Mayor Bill Rauch outside Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort.

Beaufort County's three bases contribute about $454 million to the local economy and provide 1,249 civilian jobs, according to an economic impact study completed in August. Sanford said it will be up to local officials how to use the $50,000.

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," said Payne, who noted that the economic impact study cost $20,000. "But the stakes are too high to lose."

About 25 percent of military installations are 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.

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 the U.S. Defense Department's mandated round of base closures in 2005.

The money was appropriated by the General Assembly from fiscal year 2003-04 general funds.

The loss of a military base can be painful, especially to a community like Beaufort that relies heavily on military spending.

In the 1990s, Charleston lost its naval shipyard and naval base while Myrtle Beach lost its Air Force base. At the time, the shipyard was the largest industrial employer in the state.

The Defense Department will not be considering the economic impact of the bases when deciding which installations to close, but will focus instead on each base's military value.

"What Congress is looking at now is how effective bases are in the war effort," said Eckstrom, chairman of the governor's Military Base Task Force.

The air station has squadrons flying missions over Afghanistan during Operation Enduring Freedom, over Iraq during Operation Iraqi Freedom and 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 travel to Washington, D.C., on Nov. 18 to meet with Defense Department and congressional leaders regarding the status of the base closure process, lobby for money for military construction and tell the story of Beaufort's bases and their role in national defense, he said.