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Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Ft. Hood realignment tab to double

By Bob Deans | Tuesday, December 11, 2007, 04:25 PM

Realigning the Army’s Ft. Hood will cost taxpayers roughly $2.7 billion over the next 20 years - about double what the Pentagon estimated just two years ago.

That’s the bottom line in a report the non-partisan Government Accountability Office released Tuesday on military base realignments and closures.

In 2005, the Department of Defense announced plans to close or realign dozens of facilities around the country, in an effort to streamline military training, operations and maintenance.

Under the plan, Ft. Hood, a sprawling base that’s home to some 42,000 soldiers 50 miles northeast of Austin, Tx., is to be realigned, chiefly by moving the 4th Infantry Division to Ft. Carson, Co., and making various other changes.

The Defense Department originally estimated it would cost $435.8 million to realign Ft. Hood.

Now the DOD estimate has risen: to at least $621.8 million, a 43-percent price spike in just two years, the GAO reports.

Realigning Ft. Hood was never meant to be a money saver: the purpose was to consolidate certain Army functions in the name of efficiency.

Two years ago, the Pentagon estimated taxpayers would spend $45.3 million more per year to realign the sprawling fort than to keep it as is.

Turns out that, too, was low. Now the brass estimates it will cost more than twice that amount - $105.8 million a year - to make the changes.

Those are recurring costs.

That means the revised tab for the change will top $2.1 billion over 20 years, not accounting for inflation.

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