MGM2Operate.XLS is a Microsoft Excel Workbook to estimate the economic impacts of park payroll, operations and construction on the local economy.

Like MGM2, MGM2Operate is a multi-page Excel spreadsheet. Inputs are entered on an INPUT page, calculations are carried out on a CALCULATIONS page, and results are summarized in a table on the RESULTS page. Select page tabs at the bottom of the spreadsheet to move from page to page.

Steps for Estimating Impacts of Park Operations

Step 1. On the Inputs page, enter (A) payroll, (B) operating expenses, and (C) construction expenses (if applicable) of the park unit for a given year.

Step 2. Select the economic multipliers that best represent the region around the park for which impacts are desired.

Step 3. View the impact estimates on the "Results" page.

•  Interpreting the Results
•  FAQ section
• Download section

Step 1. Enter park expenses in the shaded cells of Table 1.

• Enter total expenses in each category in Column B to the nearest dollar.
• Enter the percentage of  these expenses that accrue to local firms in Column C.
• Local sales are computed in Column D by multiplying Column B by Column C. The local percentages for payroll will normally be 100% although it can be reduced to reflect park employees who live outside the local region. Only local purchases in Column D are used in computing local economic impacts.

Other Notes

• If you prefer to enter local purchases directly, enter them in Column B and set all Local percentages in Column C to 100%.
• If you do not wish to include construction or any other expense categories, simply set them to zero.
• The spreadsheet includes cells at the top to identify the park unit, year, and the local region - largely for identification purposes.
• Put items from your annual expenses into the category that best matches.
• Payroll benefits include employer contributions to health care and retirement programs
• Services includes maintenance and service contracts, and payments for management or consulting services. Put any purchase that isn't a tangible good into this category.
• Put purchases of goods except gas and oil (which is itemized separately) into the supplies category. This includes office supplies and equipment, hardware, clothing, toilet paper, etc. Only retail margins on these goods are counted in estimating local impacts.
• Include major repairs as well as new construction in section C.
• Seasonal jobs should be entered as annual equivalents, e.g. four jobs for a three month season would equal one annual job. The model does not distinguish between full and part time jobs.

Choose from four sets of generic multipliers to represent the economic characteristics of your region. Just as in the MGM2 model for visitor spending, choose from a rural area, smaller metro region, larger metro region, or state level multipliers. You may inspect the multipliers in Table 3 on the calculations page if you wish.
 

Generic Multipliers

Rural Small Metro Large Metro State

Guidance for selecting multipliers

• Rural: for predominantly rural areas with limited economic development, populations less than 50,000.
• Small metro: regions with populations up to 500,000, either smaller regions including a MSA or larger regions with several cities of moderate size.
• Larger metro: regions with populations up to 1 million including a MSA
• State: Large geographic areas with populations over a million, either including several MSA's or a major metropolitan region like New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, or Detroit.

Table 4 reports the local economic impacts of the local purchases from Column D of the INPUT page. Impacts of payroll, operating expenses, and construction are reported separately.
 

Table 4. Economic Impacts of Park Operations and Construction
Spending Category	Park Budget	Local Sales	Total Sales	Total Jobs	Total Personal Income	Total Value Added
A. Impacts of Park Payroll
Wages and Salaries	$ 600,000				$ 600,000	$ 600,000
Benefits	150,000				150,000	150,000
NPS Jobs (annual, full & part time)				10.0
NPS Jobs -seasonal (annual equivalent)				1.0
Induced effects of NPS payroll			309,480	5.3	88,102	175,072
Total Payroll effects	750,000		309,480	16.3	838,102	925,072
B. Impacts of Park Operations
Utilities + postal	75,090	38,790	45,581	0.3	10,600	33,802
Services	30,000	3,000	4,019	0.1	1,453	2,048
Supplies	82,000	20,280	25,637	0.9	12,135	19,470
Total Operating Expenses	187,090	62,070	75,237	1	24,188	55,321
Total Impacts of Park Operations (Salaries + Operating)	937,090	62,070	384,716	33.9	950,391	1,155,465
C. Construction Impacts	22,000	19,500	25,029	0.4	9,758	11,601
D. Total Impacts (Payroll, Operating, & Constr.)			409,745	34	960,150	1,167,066

 

Interpreting the results

It is important that the findings be clearly understood and explained. This requires an understanding of the assumptions and inputs as well as the meaning of the outputs.

Inputs and assumptions: The results in the hypothetical example here are based on :

• A park payroll of $750,000 including $150,000 in payroll benefits and $600,000 in wages and salaries. All employees live in local region around the park.
• The hypothetical park has 10 year-round employees and three seasonal employees working four months for an annual equivalent of one seasonal job.
• Park operating expenses in 2000 were $187,090 of which  $83,190 accrues to local firms (Table 1). Notice that local sales in Table 4 is somewhat lower ($62,070) as only the retail margins are included on local retail purchases. Reductions are in the supplies and gas and oil categories.
• This park spent $22,000 on construction split across the three construction categories. 88% of construction expenses accrue to local firms, yielding $19,500 in local construction sales in Table 4.
• In this case the rural area multipliers are selected.

• Total Sales are the sales of goods and services by firms located within the region, including secondary effects
• Jobs are the number of jobs supported by these sales
• Personal income represents wage and salaries paid by these firms (including sole proprietor's income and worker benefits).
• Value added includes personal income plus rents and profits plus indirect business taxes.

• Total impacts for this example are $409,745 in sales by local firms, supporting 34 jobs, 11 of which are NPS employees.
•  Total personal income is $960,150 including the $750,000 NPS payroll, $88,102 in induced income from park employee spending of their incomes in the local area and $122,048 in income in firms that the park purchases goods and services from (for park operations and construction).
• Total value added is $1.167 million, which includes the $960,150 in personal income plus rents and profits of  firms from which the park purchases goods and services and some sales taxes.
• The induced effects of the park payroll stem from park employees spending a portion of the $600,000 in income within the local area. These impacts accrue to retail establishments, to firms that provide local services for park employees and their families (banking, utilities, housing, schools, etc.) , and to local government in the form of property, sales and other taxes.
• Impacts for operating expenses and construction are calculated in a similar fashion. First, the park expense budget is reduced to only include purchases from local suppliers. Then only retail margins are included on purchases of goods. The differences between the total sales column and direct sales in Table 4 are the secondary effects of spending in each category. Total impacts are calculated by applying the appropriate multipliers for each category to the estimate of direct sales.
• Table 3 below shows a sample set of multipliers used in the model. Distinct economic ratios and multipliers are applied to each spending category