BOSTON — Federal defense and homeland security contracts added $33.9 billion to the New England economy in 2011 — an 85 percent increase from eight years ago, according to a new study from the University of Massachusetts Donahue Institute.
Released Monday at a Capitol Hill briefing, the regional study commissioned by the Defense Technology Initiative found that the defense and homeland security industries are highly interconnected among all six New England states and important to the region’s economy.
“The real value of the report is beginning of our commitment to keep this data refreshed on a regular basis,” said Initiative President Christopher Anderson.
Tracking data from 2003 to 2011, the report examines the trends in defense spending and the interconnections between the six New England states. It estimates that the total direct and indirect economic activity spurred by federal defense and security contracts in the region exceeded $62 billion last year.
Massachusetts, the report’s top earner, received nearly $13.9 billion from Department of Defense and Department of Homeland Security contracts — an increase of 83 percent over the study period.
The contracts are responsible for 130,000 jobs in Massachusetts, with most of the defense-related spending in the state reserved for professional, scientific and technical services for research and development.
Sen. John Kerry, a Massachusetts Democrat, said in a statement that gathering this information is important so New England’s congressional leaders “can keep making the smartest case for a strong defense industry at home.”
Sen. Scott Brown, his Republican counterpart, urged Massachusetts universities, research labs and defense industrial base to collaborate in an effort to move technology forward.
“In today’s tough fiscal environment, we must work together to find responsible, bipartisan solutions that meet current and future threats, keep our nation secure, and ensure warfighters are equipped,” he said in a statement.
Additionally, the report found that Connecticut experienced the second largest revenue boost from federal contracts in the region, with $12.7 billion pumped into the state’s economy last year — up 58 percent from 2003 and accounting for more than 101,000 jobs.
New Hampshire gained $1.3 billion from defense contracts, more than doubling its amount revenue. And Maine’s contract for new Navy destroyers at the General Dynamics Iron Works facility in Bath, contributed to the largest state increase since 2003, bringing in $5 billion in 2011, compared to the $1 billion brought in just eight years earlier.
Meanwhile, Rhode Island and Vermont received the smallest direct economic boost from federal defense and homeland security contracts, each taking in less than $1 billion in 2011.
“Rhode Island doesn’t have prime investments, but it benefits from contracts in other states,” Anderson said, adding that the indirect flow from out-of-state vendors largely elevates the economic impact of federal defense and security contracts on the state.
He also said that states like New Hampshire and Connecticut see similar benefits as Massachusetts bases employ a large number of out-of-state residents.
“If we collaborate as a region, across borders and across parties, we should be able to deliver solutions from new employers, researchers and expand the role we have in serving missions,” Anderson said.
The Defense Technology Initiative and the Donahue Institute will be releasing more in-depth studies on Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island in the fall.
We spend on too much defense…
Completely unsustainable…..that’s all there is to say about the welfare/warfare state the baby boomers have built up and now stand poised to hand over to the next generation, already enslaved with the boomer’s selfish, short-sighted, immoral debts…
…as opposed to corporate servitude, blatant segregation and racisim, environmental devastation and taxation without ANY representation! Wow,jtc…now that I see it through your blinders…what’s not to love???
Isn’t that what jtc was talking about?
The Pentagon’s public relations office is now in overdrive to create voter support for spending we cannot afford, nor do we need. Such as $1.5 TRILLION for the F-35.
Amen
But I thought government spending didn’t create jobs . . . or are we supposed to believe that only military spending creates jobs? Defense budget=government contractor welfare. KBR, Blackwater – among the biggest welfare queens on the public dole.
Exactly. Wars and the Dept of Defense are the biggest government jobs program we have. Why do you think Obama has not cut any defense spending? The DOD is the one government stimulus that the GOP will support, so the Dems should embrace it instead of demonizing it.
Obama is cutting defense though.
http://www.npr.org/2012/03/28/149522246/the-nation-press-obama-on-defense-cuts
http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2012/01/05/obama-unveils-defense-cuts-while-iran-threatens-war/
The Ds support it just fine. They talk about efficiencies, but ask a D about BRAC or reducing acquisition of something built in his/her state, and then defense spending it a-okay.
I’m sure Cynthia Dill wants to cut defense spending…well, just not at Portsmouth, Bath, or Bangor.
The government just needs to spend it on the right thing. I believe that it was calculated that NASA provided an $8 return on every dollar spent. Now that’s an investment.
By all means, make the common people in need of good (as in, good paying) jobs to support their families… something that has been failing for the middle class for the last 30-40 years… complicit in the perpetual war and empire maintenance nearly 1000 overseas military installations require to stay in business. The war-making industry MUST be supported. “We are at war with Eastasia. We’ve always been at war with Eastasia.” 1984, George Orwell. (Until the message becomes, “We are at war with Oceania. We’ve always been at war with Oceania…”)
The defense contractors need the work force to maintain their profits… the shareholders need their dividends and elevated stock prices… the workers need the work to “try” to maintain standard of living fewer and fewer in the middle class can enjoy with middle class wages being flat or falling for the last 30-40 years…
Chalmers Johnson, former Cold War hawk and CIA consultant, said it well when he said maintaining Empire internationally takes from domestic needs. Not only is national treasure shifted into the industries that support Empire, leaving less and less to be spent on schools, education and the future of our children, infrastructure, and necessary benefits for the elderly, the sick, the poor… the shift in focus and import in the office of the president from the civilian leadership role to the commander in chief’s military role is not a good development in a democracy…:
“A nation can be one or the other, a democracy or an imperialist, but it
can’t be both. If it sticks to imperialism, it will, like the old Roman Republic,
on which so much of our system was modeled, like the old Roman
Republic, it will lose its democracy to a domestic dictatorship.”
To hear the Democrat, and former Winter Soldier, John Kerry talk like this is a “no brainer,” and great for “jobs…” is a pretty good indication how backwards, upside down, Orwellian, our world has become…