Study: Tribe Contributes $119 Million to State Economy

Akwesasne Territory— A recent economic impact study reflects the St. Regis Mohawk Tribe’s role in the North Country economy.  With over 1,300 employees, the Tribe is the third largest employer in Franklin and St. Lawrence Counties and the fifth largest employer in the North Country.  The state as a whole benefits from the impact of the tribe’s economic activity such as payroll spending, gaming revenue share, tax generation and spending for goods and services in the region.

The study, conducted by the Taylor Policy Group, shows the Tribe to be a major economic player, creating net economic benefits to the region and local counties.  The Tribe’s direct, indirect and induced spending resulted in a $119 million positive impact in the state of New York in 2008 and a $95 million impact on St. Lawrence and Franklin counties.  These impacts have allowed the regional economies in the North Country to recover from economic stress induced by recent manufacturing plant closings and the downsizing of other associated businesses.

Tribal employees spend 98 percent of their payroll in the region, which, in turn, generates a further $3.8 million in local and state taxes.  In addition to taxes generated by payroll spending, the Tribe’s gaming revenue-share agreement with New York accounted for another $13 million in 2008.  $3.3 million of the 2008 revenue-share went to Franklin and St. Lawrence Counties.  In the past three years, the tribe paid the state well over $31 million for its revenue-share for gaming, with $7.8 million going to the counties.

The Akwesasne Territory is also home to over 300 privately-owned business establishments.  These businesses include gas stations, gift shops, hotels, restaurants, marinas, tobacco stores, automotive repair, construction, trucking, rentals, plumbing, media, masonry, electric, bakeries, lawn care, salons, photography, auto racing, day care, home fuel, art galleries, computer/internet services, car wash, laundromat, sports shops and office supply.  All these businesses help to make up a vibrant reservation economy, provide jobs and cash flow to the region.

The Taylor economic study uses an input-output model to measure the impact of the Tribe’s economic activity, locally, regionally and state-wide.  Nobel laureate Wassily Leontief originally developed the model used to estimate the effects of investment and policy.  The Taylor study uses one of the common models, INPLAN, which estimates three classes of economic effects: direct, indirect and induced spending.  Direct spending measures the amount of local economic activity such as employees spending their payrolls.  Indirect spending measures the effects of activity through input industries.  For example, a Tribal construction projects uses a concrete company, which sells more cement, causes a gravel company to mine more gravel, a gasoline wholesaler to deliver more fuel and so on throughout the economy.  Induced effects measure the changes in local economies and industries caused by household spending arising from direct and indirect spending.  All these value-added effects estimate the portion of the regional gross domestic product (GDP) associated with the Tribe’s economic activity.