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Economic impact of the legislature in Austin
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AP Photo: Rep. Rafael Anchia, D-Dallas.
Whilst ruminating on the (sometimes) good works of Texas legislature today, I started to wonder what might Austinites have to gain from having the capitol in our fair city. Surely a group of high-powered policymakers brings an economic boon to town, right? Let’s see.
The legislature has 181 members who meet on odd-numbered years for 140 days. Let’s suppose each member buys a $2 cup of coffee every morning at the Starbucks on Congress Avenue. Let’s then assume Joe (or Jane) Lawmaker grabs a quick bite for lunch. He (or she) is frugal, considering the limited job security, a gets lunch for $10 in the capitol café. Not bad.
For dinner, however, we’ll splurge. Maybe that handsome lobbyist from the gas company is taking us out tonight, or that cute activist from the environmental alliance. We’ll go to The Belmont downtown, where dinner for two can run us about $60, assuming we’re getting a glass of wine, too.
That’s around $72 a day. For 181 people, for 140 days, that’s $1,824,480 injected into Austin’s economy each session. It doesn’t quite compete with the economic impact of say, a Longhorn football game every Saturday, every autumn, but still not bad.
If our leaders get called back for a special session (fingers crossed if you care about insurance or roads), that’s another 30 days and close to $400,000 more.
This is, of course, a rather simple model – it doesn’t include staff or purchases outside of food. It doesn’t include courts, state libraries and museums, the governor’s office or state agencies, either.
Then again, if we don’t get that special session, we might not have to worry about a few of those agencies anymore.
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