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Coastal
Economics
Southern
California Beach Valuation Project
News:
August 13, 2001: Downturn
Doesn't Slow Travel in State
• In 1998, California's beaches generated $14 billion
of direct revenue. When the indirect and induced benefits
of this spending are added, California's beaches total contribution
to the national economy is $73 billion.
• The federal tax revenues generated by this beach activity
are substantial. The direct federal tax revenues generated
are $2.6 billion; however, the total federal tax revenues
generated are much higher: $14 billion.
• California's beaches generated 883,000 jobs across
the U.S.
• California receives less than one tenth as much in
federal appropriations as New York and New Jersey, which have
much smaller coastlines and fewer miles of beaches.
• California ranks eighth in terms of federal appropriations
for shoreline protection, just ahead of Delaware. It receives
just under $12,000 per mile of coastline, compared with well
over $800,000 per mile for New York and New Jersey.
• While California receives twice as much in federal
shoreline protection appropriations as Delaware (the ninth
largest recipient of federal funds) its beaches generate twenty
times more economic activity for the national economy and
roughly twenty times more tax revenues than Delaware's beaches.
In other words, California generates ten times more federal
tax dollars, per dollar of shoreline appropriation, than Delaware.
• A study of Huntington Beach indicates that much of
the federal and state tax revenues generated by local beach
communities do not go back to local communities. In a survey
in Huntington Beach, one-half of all spending on beach activities
occurred outside the city. Furthermore, many of the tax dollars
generated within the city go to state and federal authorities.
Overall, Huntington Beach's beaches generated $135 million
in federal tax revenues and $25 million in state sales tax
revenues compared to only $4.8 million in local revenues from
sales taxes and parking fees.
Source: King,
P. "The Fiscal Impact of Beaches in California" 1999.
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