by Bradley Parsons
Staff Writer
Recently released figures show defense spending increasing in Northeast Florida and depict an intricate relationship between the military and Duval County’s economy and community, according to the mayor’s office. It’s a unique relationship, City officials say, one that they hope registers at the federal level as the 2005 round of base closures is being planned.
A University of West Florida study showed that Department of Defense spending in 2002 helped sustain more than 135,000 jobs across the county. The jobs emanating from the defense industry also tend to be some of the county’s highest paying. Those employees earned an average of $42,004 annually; well above Duval’s per capita rate of $28,345.
These employees, business owners and beneficiaries of government entitlements poured a little more than $115 million in tax revenue into the public coffers last year. The numbers illustrate the military’s importance to the area, but they also hint at potentially devastating consequences were the area to lose Mayport Naval Station, the Jacksonville Naval Air Station, the Blount Island Command or Naval Aviation Depot Jacksonville during the next round of Base Realignment and Closures.
The City will put numbers like these to use in lobbying Congress and the defense department. However, mayor’s office spokesperson Heather Murphy said the defense department will be less interested in what the military does for Jacksonville than what the City can do for the military.
It will be important for the City, she said, to emphasize the special relationship that exists here between the community and military personnel. Military commands know they have an advocate in City Hall, but, just as important, soldiers and sailors know the community also supports them. Relatively low unemployment means spouses can find jobs; the weather and nearby beaches contribute to a better quality of life.
“The numbers support what we’ve been saying all along, that the military community is a critical piece of our economy,” said Murphy. “But it goes further than that; they are an integral part of our community as well, and that’s why it’s so important that we do everything we can to ensure our bases stay here.”
Statewide, defense spending is directly or indirectly responsible for $44 billion or nearly 10 percent of Florida’s gross state product, according to the study. The effects of those funds are felt disproportionately in North Florida. The State’s Northeast region, which includes Duval, Clay and St. Johns counties, receives nearly $4 billion in spending and employs a quarter of defense–related employees.
Of that $4 billion, Duval County keeps an overwhelming majority. More than $3.5 billion was spent here in 2002.
Keeping Jacksonville’s bases off the base–closure chopping block will do more than keep that money. With fewer bases nationwide and regionally, the surviving bases promise to be busier, hiring and spending more. The study predicts defense spending’s contribution to Northeast Florida’s gross regional product to more than double ($9.8 billion) by 2010. Over the next eight years, the study predicts, the defense industry will spend $80.6 billion in the region.