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From Mirror staff reports
An IRS office in Altoona is on the list of closings announced by the Department of Government Efficiency, otherwise known as DOGE.
Closing of the federal office at 1601 11th Ave., Altoona, will save a total of $282,389, according to the doge.gov/savings website. The annual lease for the 4,192-square-foot space is $70,597. No explanation is provided to show how the savings figure was reached. The building is owned by Townsquare Associates LLC and contains several other businesses.
According to the IRS website, the Altoona office is open from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. The office offers local services including account inquiries, basic individual tax law assistance, check or money order payments, departing alliance clearances, payment arrangements, tax forms and more.
According to DOGE, 748 lease terminations are planned, totaling more than 9.5 million square feet and creating $660 million in lease savings.
Two State College government offices are also on the list.
Closing the United States Fish and Wildlife Service in State College, with a 6,700 square foot space, leased annually for $197,699, will save $823,748, according to the website.
Also slated to close is the Employment Standards Administration, Wage and Hour Division office in State College, with a 443-square-foot space leased annually for $12,131. This closing will create a total savings of $45,491, according to the list provided on the DOGE website.
In all cases, the termination of the lease was made via "Mass Mod."
A total of 24 federal offices in Pennsylvania are on the list, including the Mine Safety Health Administration in Frackville. That 5,125-square-foot space is leased for $132,547 per year. Terminating the lease will result in a total savings of $55,228.
Closing of a Mine Safety Health Administration office in Waynesburg, 8,233 square feet, leased for $168,726 per year, will save $478,057. Closing the same office in Mount Pleasant will save an additional $786,086. That 12,964-square-foot office lease is $235,826.
Other planned closings in the state include the Bureau of Prisons in Philadelphia, a 4,962-square-foot space, leased for $146,265, resulting in a savings of $121,888; International Trade Administration in Philadelphia, 3,492-square-feet, leased for $87,941, saving $87,941; two Office of Inspector General agencies in King of Prussia, a 3,173-square-foot space, leased for $58,265, saving $135,952, and a 3,109-square-foot space, leased for $69,908, saving $221,375; DHS United States Secret Service office in Philadelphia, 1,000 square feet, $39,348 lease, saving $196,740; the Rural Housing Service in Harrisburg, 34,467 square feet, $714,397 lease, saving $119,006; two Office of Personnel Management agencies in Boyers, one a 3,450-square-foot space, leased for $48,277, resulting in a total savings of $156,900, and the second an 11,500-square-foot space leased for $161,862, a $526,052 savings.
Other sites on the list include the Geological Survey in New Cumberland, a 30,279-square-foot space with a $778,521 lease, resulting in a savings of $454,138; the Agricultural Marketing Service in Philadelphia, a 4,823-square-foot space with a lease of $96,460, for a savings of $72,345; the Federal Aviation Administration in Coraopolis, 10,455 square feet, $235,431 lease, saving $765,152; Office of Personnel Management in East Butler, 13,911 square feet, $160,369 lease, saving $66,821; the Securities and Exchange Commission in Philadelphia, 44,765 square feet, $1.188 million lease, saving $4.257 million.
Closing the 42,995-square-foot space for the Department of Education in Philadelphia will save $1.115 million, the same amount as the lease. Closing the Geological Survey office in Williamsport, 4,839 square feet, leased for $67,391, will save $140,398, while the same office in Downingtown, 5,452 square feet, leased for $102,968, will save $223,098. Closing the Railroad Retirement Board in Scranton, 1,250 square feet, leased for $32,369, will save $70,133, and closing the IRS National Office in Erie, 5,305 square feet, leased for $102,356, will save $34,119.
While most of the planned closings state the termination of the lease is made via "Mass Mod," several are marked as "True Termination - Agency Closed Office." The savings is assuming a 5-year continuation of the lease, the website states.
Additional information about the planned closings, and whether or not the spaces are currently being leased, is unavailable, as is any information on how many people work in those locations.
The DOGE website states that it was last updated Sunday. The site is to be updated weekly, though over time, updates will be made in real time.
The website states that a combination of asset sales, contract/lease cancellations and renegotiations, fraud and improper payment deletion, grant cancellations, interest savings, programmatic changes, regulatory savings and workforce reductions will result in $105 billion in estimated savings. In turn, that means $652.17 will be saved per taxpayer, based on an estimate of 161 million individual federal taxpayers.