Killing and Thinking in the South Dakota Economy

All those folks pumping buckshot into critters also pump a lot of money in the South Dakota economy: a new report calculates that each year hunting and fishing add $350 million to the South Dakota economy (just shy of a million dollars a day), contributes $35 million to our state tax coffers, and supports 6,000 jobs [reported by Megan Myers at that Sioux Falls paper on Christmas Day, but maybe more likely to stay available here the following: Melinda Gable, news release, "South Dakota's Hunters and Anglers Have a Significant Impact on the Economy," National Shooting Sports Foundation, 2007.12.19].

The full report -- "Hunting and Fishing: Bright Stars of the American Economy" -- allows you to compare states and see nationwide data. The report comes from two lobbying groups, the Congressional Sportsmen's Foundation and the National Shooting Sports Foundation, the latter of which gets plenty of gun-industry money. These advocates offer a cornucopia of fun party facts about the big money in chasing South Dakota's wily pheasant and carp:

1. Sportsmen (no PC talk of sportspeople from these folks) support more jobs in South Dakota than Sanford Health Care (6000 vs. 5000).
   
2. South Dakota sportsmen spend more annually than the cash receipts of South Dakota's dairy, hay, and turkey industries ($350M vs $347M).
   
3. SD sportsmen outnumber the populations of Rapid City, Aberdeen, Watertown, and Brookings combined (136,000 vs. 125,000). [all 3 stats from Gable].

Those dollars and jobs are good for our economy, and we'll take every penny we can get.

But just for perspective, the very biased Lake Herman Institute for Advanced Studies cherry-picks some stats of its own, based on rigorous Googling, on the economic impact of some other key elements of the modern economy:

1. 1,319 faculty just sitting around thinking were able to draw $87 million in research grants into the South Dakota economy [see SD Board of Regents Fact Book 2007, p. 24]. That's $66K per faculty member, just for research. It takes 136,000 resident sportspeople and 81,000 out-of-staters to generate $350M in revenue: that's $1.6K per sportsperson.
2. Don't forget that those faculty also educate 31,000 students who are the core of our hopes for continued economic development.
   
3. As the Legislature takes up Governor Rounds's proposal to spend $3.8M start-up and $868K/year ongoing on a new 25th-century Internet for the universities and economic development [see budget address, p. 15], consider that North Carolina invested $6M in a somewhat similar initiative to take advantage of grid computing. Estimated economic benefit: $10 billion over seven years = $1.4 billion per year.
   
4. Texas estimates a similar grid-computing effort will generate 21,000 jobs.

Killing critters (especially those mountain lions) is all fine and good. But don't forget that the new economy is being built on brains, not bullets (and bobbers).