DuPageBiz Urges Argonne & Fermilab Funding Restoration

LISLE ― DuPageBiz, an organization dedicated to advancing DuPage County as a premiere business location, urges restoration of funding cuts recently announced by both Fermilab and Argonne National Laboratory.

DuPageBiz, a not-for-profit Economic Development Corporation, is a partnership between business and government charged with advancing the economy of DuPage County.

“The economic impact of funding cuts at Fermilab and Argonne will ripple through the local economy creating layoffs in other service businesses that rely on the wages and purchasing of those facilities,” said DuPageBiz President and CEO Roger Hopkins.  “The impact of the layoffs at both Argonne and Fermilab each will cause layoffs in other assorted business services and government employment including health care, banking, real estate, retail trade, hospitality, professional and technical services, and other sectors of the economy.  The cumulative impact will be similar to losing a major industry research and development facility.” 

The economic impact of the possible layoffs on the local economy could produce a total of $56 million of lost direct and indirect economic activity, based on the economic impact modeling software from Economic Modeling Specialists, Inc (EMSI).   The effects may be greater if there are outside purchases of materials and services beyond ordinary wage and salary payments to employees that may be laid off at Argonne and Fermilab.  For example, the model predicts about $28 Million of lost regional activity for Fermilab, but the institution has reported a spending reduction may be as much as $52 Million.  Based on the earnings multiplier of 1.43 in the EMSI model, that could project to nearly $75 million in lost direct and indirect activity from Fermilab alone.

“The loss of salaries, wages and purchasing power also produces lower state and local tax revenues.  Given the current condition of state and local government, these losses will be difficult to offset or recover,” said Hopkins.

DuPageBiz strives to grow the County’s economy by leveraging public and private resources, supporting local municipal economic development efforts, and promoting DuPage County as a world-class business location.  “There are very tangible examples of the ways that research at Argonne and Fermilab produces commercial advances in technology that return benefit to the region.  The loss of that research raises the question about maintaining competitiveness of locally produced technology against foreign competition,” according to Hopkins.

# # #