Economist predicts $93 million drop in total revenue for Mississippi County

CAPE GIRARDEAU, MO (KRCU) - A Southeast Missouri State University economist studied the impact of the Birds Point Levee breach on the Mississippi County economy.

Dr. Bruce Domazlicky says that the impact of flooding half of the county’s farmland will have the most direct impact through the loss of agriculture output from this land.

The indirect impact is the loss that agricultural suppliers will face. These include lost seed and other input sales.

There will also be an induced impact from the loss of farm wages.

"What we found is that employment in 2011, the current year, will decline by a little over 500. Which is quite significant. That’s about 9% of the total employment in Mississippi County," Domazlicky said. "The second thing we found is that labor income would fall by about 12 million dollars in the county, and that’s also about 9% of the total labor income in the county."

The total revenue in the county, Domazlicky says, will go down by about 93 million dollars. He says this figure is the result of less agricultural output, but it is also affected by the reduction in sales by input providers.

Domazlicky says that these figures translate to about 14 percent of total revenue for the county. The numbers account for the current year.

"What’s going to happen going forward with respect to whether or not those acres can be brought back into cultivation, will then determine how extensive those impacts are going to be in the future," Domazlicky explained.

Domazlicky says that government assistance programs will mitigate these numbers somewhat, but will not completely make up for the direct loss of revenue for the county.

Jacob McCleland, KRCU

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