Executive Summary. Economic Analysis of the Draft Final Plan for the Lake Champlain Management Conference. LCBP Technical Report #17A

Holmes, T., & Artuso, A. (1996). Economic Analysis of the Draft Final Plan for the Lake Champlain Management Conference, Executive Summary (Technical Report No. 17A). Grand Isle, VT: Lake Champlain Basin Program.

Report 17A is a 48 page executive summary which begins with an introduction to the Lake Champlain planning process. Following is a discussion of the background benefit and cost data necessary to an accurate analysis of possible future benefits and costs related to implementation of the draft Final Plan “Opportunities for Action.” The next section is a detailed discussion of phosphorus control, as the measures to control phosphorus are a major component and cost of the Plan. The report briefly discusses the non-phosphorus actions, followed by the major results from the IMPLAN analysis of the economic implications of Plan implementation for local economies in Vermont and New York. The remainder of the summary provides an overview of economic implications of high priority actions within the Plan, in an attempt to put the economic data in the context of local economies and recreational use of Lake Champlain. The summary concludes with a section on the cost of no action, and a glossary of economic terms and concepts. The IMPLAN model is an economic tool for characterizing how a given economic activity actually impacts local economies at the county level. IMPLAN attempts to accurately model a county’s economy by accounting for only funds that remain in the county as employee compensation or other direct payments at local businesses and industries. It also discounts governmental spending as less productive in local economies than private sector spending. The IMPLAN analysis carried out for this research found that Plan-related spending in the New York and Vermont Lake Champlain basin counties would equal or slightly exceed the actual economic benefit in those counties. Furthermore, if federal funds are available to fund 50% of the costs as is currently projected, then the local economic benefit would exceed state, local, private, and nonprofit spending on Plan-related activities.