By COLE REIF
Great Bend Post
At Tuesday's Barton Community College Board of Trustees meeting, Director of Institutional Effectiveness Todd Mobray presented a finalized economic impact study that the college has on Barton County. The study was performed by the Fort Hays State University Docking Institute for the 2022 fiscal year.
Just in Barton County, the college provided a $30 million impact, which included more than $17 million in labor income for 380 full-time equivalent jobs.
"The study uses the direct effect, and that's the actual money paid and spent by the college," said Mobray. "The induced effect is the ripple of the money re-spent by the employee households and local business. Just the income was $17 million, but the output of the direct effect was much bigger in Barton County."
Barton Community College activities generated about $247,000 in local taxes. Partnership donations and shared or exchanged services, facilities or equipment valued over $8.9 million.
Expected to collect just under $10 million in property taxes for the 2024 fiscal year, the study showed for every $1 of revenue that comes from Barton County taxes, the college spent $2.05 directly back into the county.