According to Dr. Jeffrey M. Humphreys, director of the Selig Center for Economic Growth at the University of Georgia’s Terry College of Business, it adds up to $55,199,383.

The economic impact is in a new report from Dr. Humphreys that details his analysis of economic data from the Technical College System of Georgia for the 2012 fiscal year.

The study also found that the college’s spending results in 757 public and private sector jobs. Humphreys reported that statewide, for each job created on a TCSG college campus, one off-campus job exists because of college-related expenditures.  One in every 264 nonfarm jobs in Georgia, he said, occurs because of spending associated with a TCSG college.

"The fundamental finding is that each of the TCSG colleges, including Wiregrass Georgia Technical College creates substantial economic impacts in terms of output, value added, labor income, and employment. These economic impacts demonstrate that continued emphasis on technical colleges as an enduring pillar of the regional economy translates into jobs, higher incomes, and greater production of goods and services for local households and businesses,” said Humphreys.

The TCSG commissioned Humphreys to calculate the importance that spending connected to the state’s technical colleges has for their service delivery areas, which range in size from two to eleven counties.  Wiregrass serves Atkinson, Ben Hill, Berrien, Brooks, Coffee, Cook, Echols, Irwin, Lanier, Lowndes, and Wilcox counties. Several categories of college expenditures were reviewed for the study, including personnel salaries and fringe benefits, college operations, capital construction projects, and student spending, to name a few.

The result, put in the context of the taxpayer investment, indicated that the $12,238,353 state appropriation for Wiregrass in 2012 supported the enrollment of 6,713 students, generated $55,199,383 in local spending, and helped to sustain almost 757 college-related jobs.

“The return on the investment made by the state in Wiregrass Georgia Technical College is significant to the economy of the communities we serve. Not only are we providing the trained workforce needed to sustain business and industry in our service area but the existence of the college in the community is an economic stimulus,” stated Dr. Tina K. Anderson

Statewide, the $315 million state appropriation for the TCSG in 2012 helped to train almost 153,000 technical college students, contributed to $1.2 billion in direct and indirect spending in communities throughout Georgia, and was a factor in almost 15,000 public and private sector jobs.