CENTRAL VALLEY – The Department of Government Efficiency, known more commonly as DOGE, has begun the process of cutting spending, including directing staff to terminate leases of properties that are deemed unnecessary.
The cutbacks will affect at least three Valley offices, including the massive Internal Revenue Service (IRS) office in Visalia. As of Wednesday, March 5, the DOGE website lists a total of 748 lease terminations nationally representing nearly $750 million in annual savings to taxpayers.
The website lists the savings of terminating the lease of the Visalia IRS office as $208,585 annually. Two Farm Service Agency buildings are also listed. One office is located in Madera and is listed as a savings of $115,740, while the Bakersfield office represents a savings of $145,158.
Additional buildings identified by DOGE in nearby communities include an IRS office in Stockton, said to save $352,524, and a Bureau of Prisons building also in Stockton that could net a savings of more than $1.16 million. An additional IRS office in Madera is listed with a savings of $234,073.
Attorneys representing tenants of some of the leased properties listed have begun reaching out to clients and advising them to contact legal representation should they receive a notice of lease cancellations. Questions are being raised about the legality of the lease cancellations by many attorneys, who view the actions by DOGE as in violation of the lease terms in some cases, according to a report from BisNow.com.
“The government has been sending out a number of lease terminations that appear to be auto-generated and that are mistakenly seeking to terminate leases that are in the firm term,” law firm Holland & Knight advised clients in an email reported by BisNow.com. “The government does not have the right to terminate in the firm term. Lessors who receive notices that purport to terminate leases in the firm term should immediately engage counsel and push back on these notices.”
A request submitted by The Sun-Gazette to the IRS office in Washington D.C. for information about the number of employees potentially impacted by the lease cancellations was not responded to in time for publication.
