After losing federal funding in 2010, the Columbus Air Force Base has reported a sharp drop in its local economic impact for that year.
Coming off of a banner year in 2009, when the CAFB reportedly pumped $287 million into the Golden Triangle, the base reported a 2010 impact of $256 million – $31 million less than in the previous year – to the Base Community Council on Thursday.
The annual report was calculated by looking at how much the base, which is the top employer in Lowndes County, spent on personnel and payroll ($126.1 million), indirect jobs ($36.3 million) and annual expenditures like contracts ($78.2 million) and construction ($9 million).
Despite the lower impact, Wing Commander Barre Seguin emphasized the positive – like a $6.5 million increase in payroll – after the report was released.
“We”re very, very pleased with the economic impact report,” he added.
The base also supplemented its construction budget with $770,000 from alternative federal sources like President Barack Obama”s stimulus package.
Even so, the 2010 impact is the lowest since 2005, when the base reported an impact of $233 million.
The largest decrease in 2010 was in construction, which fell $19.7 million from 2009 because of a 67 percent drop in supplemental funding, said base Comptroller Commander Jennifer Varga.
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