President Donald Trump’s government cost-cutting binge is starting to hit home in Stockton.
The Department of Government Efficiency, better known simply as DOGE, plans to end the lease on two buildings in Stockton — an Internal Revenue Service office and a Bureau of Prisons facility. They are among the 748 federal buildings around the nation targeted for closing by DOGE chief Elon Musk, Trump’s billionaire senior adviser.
Stockton’s IRS and Bureau of Prisons facilities are listed on DOGE’s website. While the department doesn’t list either address, the IRS does have a Taxpayers Assistance Center on Quail Lakes Drive, and the Bureau of Prisons Western Regional Office is on Shoreline Drive. It isn’t clear, however, whether those are the buildings DOGE intends to close.
The government leases the 12,015-square-foot IRS building for $352,524 a year. Ditching the lease there would result in “total savings” of $205,639, DOGE says. Yanking the Bureau of Prisons lease would save even more. Its annual lease is listed at $1.16 million. Ending that real estate venture would save nearly $3 million, according to DOGE estimates.
The agency says ending all leases at the buildings it intends to close will save $468 million annually. There are 64 facilities targeted in California, including the U.S. Geological Survey’s Menlo Park office, home to the Earthquake Science Center, the largest USGS research center in the West.
The lease issue is separate from plans to sell buildings the government owns outright. The Trump administration on Tuesday published a list of 440 buildings it preliminarily planned to unload. The list included such landmark Washington, D.C., structures as the FBI headquarters in the J. Edgar Hoover Building; the Robert F. Kennedy Department of Justice Building; and the Old Post Office building, the Associated Press reported.
But hours later, a new smaller list was issued, excluding every previously listed building in the nation’s capital. The list was later taken off the General Services Administration website entirely, although it is expected to be reposted.
It’s unclear whether Stockton and San Joaquin County will see any government buildings closed and auctioned off, but DOGE’s cuts could certainly go beyond buildings to include federal employees who work in the area. In the first two months of the year, the Trump administration has laid off about 62,530 federal workers, Reuters reports.
Assemblymember Rhodesia Ransom, D-Tracy, on Friday called the mass layoffs of federal employees — particularly IRS workers during the critical peak of the tax-filing season — disheartening.
“I’m concerned about the individuals in our community facing the loss of their livelihoods, and I am especially worried about the ripple effects this will have on families and local businesses,” Ransom said in a statement.
Ransom, who promised to continue working to ensure that Stockton residents have access to the services they need, sent a letter to President Trump expressing her outrage over the closures. Calling the decision an “ill-conceived move,” Ranson said the act is “a failure of public service.”
“Shutting down these IRS locations is not just an inconvenience; it is a direct blow to working families who depend on these services to stay compliant with our tax system,” Ransom said in her letter Friday. “San Joaquin County already faces significant economic challenges, with an unemployment rate higher than the state average. This decision will only add to the financial strain on residents struggling to comply with federal tax obligations.”
Other local officials are also expressing concern whether the mass layoffs being spearheaded by DOGE will result in the firing of federal workers in critical positions. Central Valley water officials, in particular, are warning against ousting those at the Bureau of Reclamation who know the quirks of aging federal dams and water systems.
Justin Hopkins, general manager of the Stockton East Water District, and Chris White, executive director of the San Joaquin River Exchange Contractors Water Authority, are among 14 water district and canal operation officials from across the Central Valley who signed a letter urging the Interior Department and Bureau of Reclamation not to ax critical veteran workers.
“A reduction in force that eliminates Reclamation employees with specialized knowledge needed to manage, operate and maintain our aging infrastructure could negatively impact our water delivery system and threaten public health and safety,” the Feb. 25 letter warns.