Base's economic impact is huge

The base creates more than $750 million into the area's economy.

The economic impact of Mountain Home AFB on the regional economy is more than three quarters of a billion dollars, according to figures supplied by the base.

A preliminary analysis of the base's economic impact was presented March 26 to the Chamber's Military Affairs Committee by 2nd Lt. Robert Kubec, and financial officer with 366th Wing's Comptroller Squadron.

Kubec said that three components make up the economic impact on the area -- construction and procurement, personnel strength and payroll, and retirees.

Although the exact number of local and Idaho contractors involved in construction and procurement is still being determined, overall the operations and maintenance budget for the base totaled $16,310,848 last year. Housing added $1,911,495 (about half of it for ongoing construction of new housing units), non-appropriated funds were $59,998, and military construction money, much of it earmarked for the Army Corps of Engineers for last year's runway improvement project, totalled $17,300,000.

Procurement costs for the commissary totaled $848,088 and AFES totaled $295,540.

Costs for lodging, temporary duty and permanent change of station moves ran to just under $1 million ($992,290) last year, up considerably from the normal cost of about $300,000, Kubec said. Most of that increase was due to the changes in base force structure last year.

Tricare claims totaled $3,483,322.

Impact Aid funds, which augment the local school districts to make up for tax dollars the districts don't receive due to military families that live on base or who pay income taxes in other states, totalled nearly $3.5 million Kubec said. Military tuition assistance was budgeted for $588,676, but Kubec said the base already has spent over $600,000 to assist personnel in improving their educational qualifications.

Overall, procurement costs totaled nearly $79 million. Payroll costs for personnel were a big chunk of the base's budget, totalling approximately $173 million.

The base currently has 4,312 military personnel assigned to it, plus 6,574 dependents. Of those, 2,229 personnel and 3,934 dependents live on base.

About 600 civilians also work on base.

Payroll for on-base personnel totaled $62,574,544 and $86,680,555 for those who lived off base. The civilians earned a total of $19,931,000.

Retirees also represent a large component of the base's economic impact. A total of 5,952 retirees live in the area (3,429 of them former Air Force), with a total retirement payroll of more than $97 million.

But those numbers are just the tip of the iceberg in terms of the overall economic impact.

Within a 50-mile radius of the base it is estimated that more than 1,600 jobs are created as a result of direct base expenditures. Using figures for the local area provided by the economics department at Boise State University, each of those jobs pays an average of $27,765.

And applying a multiplyer effect, the numbers climb even higher. Multipliers represent the number of times a given dollar changes hands in the local economy. BSU estimates the multiplyer for each direct dollar generated by the base to be about 2.15.

When all those numbers are added up, the total annual economic impact to the local economy is $751, 306,246, Kubec said, an increase of about $15 million from the previous year.

Kubec said the numbers were derived using Air Force and BSU economic models, and some adjustments to improve the accuracy of the impact numbers had been made from previous years, giving a more accurate look at the base's full impact on the state's economy.

The base is one of the largest employers in the state.

Kubec said a few final numbers were being developed and a complete report on the base's economic impact should be available for the public to review in the next few months. "Right now, we're basically waiting on one last statistic" before putting the report together in a pamphlet for the public.