U. and USU pump up Utah economy

Utah's two state research universities spent $1.4 billion in the state during fiscal year 2003.

The University of Utah and Utah State University, combined, served more than 50,000 students, employed 25,429 and generated $2.1 billion in revenue for the year. Close to 30 percent of that revenue came from patient services activity at the U.'s various medical facilities.

The University of Utah's David Eccles School of Business' Bureau of Economic and Business Research, for the first time Monday, showed the U. Board of Trustees those and other numbers in a new report that details how the U. and USU impact the state's economy.

"It's a powerful report," said U. President Michael K. Young.

It's one he and U. trustees hope will compel various public and private funding sources to give more.

Past numbers on the subject of economic impact have been "dubious" at best, said bureau director Jim Wood. With at least four months of digging through data and spreadsheets from the U. and USU, the new report presents a "defensible" and "responsible" body of research, he said.

Young already has been touting some of the figures in speeches around the state. Getting legislators to understand and appreciate the overall economic impact of the U. and USU is another story.

"I'm not sure the case has been made," Young said.

Making that case would be the means toward increased support from the Utah Legislature for the two state-funded schools.

One powerful fact might be that the state's appropriation of $351.9 million in fiscal year 2003 for the U. and USU yielded a return of $1.58 billion to the state. In other words, for every $1 million the state spent on the schools that year, they returned about $4.5 million to the state's economy.

The human impact, Young added, is enormous.

"The products being made are making people's lives better," he said.

In research alone, the two schools generated $413.9 million in mostly federal funding, spending $265.3 million in Utah during fiscal year 2003, during which more than 12,000 people were paid under research contracts.

Young said that most impressive in the "conservative" report is the information on jobs created and the return on research investments in the two institutions.

For every $1 million in research funding the U. and USU generated, for example, 39 jobs were created in Utah with $732,000 in income for those employees and $59,000 added to the state tax revenue pot.