A report from the University of New Mexico concludes the Energy Department’s Los Alamos National Laboratory in recent years was worth more than $3.1 billion to the state, although the economic benefit is concentrated in a few counties.
A summary of the report was presented Aug. 21 to the Regional Coalition of LANL Communities (RCLC) by Jeffrey Mitchell, director of the university’s Bureau of Business and Economic Research, which produced the study.
The university center analyzed data from federal fiscal years 2016 through 2018, looking at factors such as employee income, various types of tax revenue, and LANL procurement of goods and services.
The Energy Department facility directly and indirectly supported 24,169 jobs , a total nearly equal to manufacturing jobs in the state (26,398), Mitchell said during an online meeting with RCLC. Nearly half of the lab’s impact was its direct employment of 11,882 federal and contract workers.
The laboratory’s economic impacts are concentrated in Northern New Mexico – particularly the seven counties of Los Alamos, Mora, Rio Arriba, Sandoval, San Miguel, Santa Fe, and Taos, according to the report.
About half of LANL’s $752.5 million in procurement for goods and services was spent with out-of-state sources, university researchers found. Of the total spent inside New Mexico, 21% went to Los Alamos County, 19% to Bernalillo County, 8% to Santa Fe County, and 1.3% to five other regional counties.
The uneven distribution of benefits and costs is one reason that some counties in the region could suffer a “negative” economic impact from the facility, Mitchell said. Bedroom communities for many national laboratory workers might not recoup enough money in local taxes and retail spending to offset the cost of providing roads and schools for the additional population, the study suggests.
Founded in 2011, the Regional Coalition of LANL Communities is comprised of nine cities, towns, counties, and pueblos surrounding Los Alamos National Laboratory.