February 2019 - Parks & Recreation - 17

report builds on the growing literature that parks and recreation also is
a critical facet of a dynamic economy. Having the federal government
agency that's charged with measuring U.S. economic activity place a
dollar value on outdoor recreation's
contribution to business activity
provides irrefutable evidence of the
importance of investments in parks
and recreation.
In recent years, NRPA has
worked closely with George Mason University on measuring the
economic impact of local park and
recreation agencies on the U.S.
economy. The most recent report
- released early last year - found
that local park and recreation agencies' operations and capital spending alone were responsible for $154
billion in economic activity (including $81 billion contribution to
GDP) in 2015.
The BEA and NRPA analyses
reach similar conclusions even
though they measure different
things. The BEA only considered
outdoor recreation activities, whereas NRPA looked at the full spectrum of indoor and outdoor park
and recreation offerings. Further,
the NRPA study narrowed its focus on solely local public park and
recreation agencies, while the BEA
report includes a full spectrum of
public and private outdoor recreation organizations and companies
(including manufacturing and retail
sales associated with outdoor activities, private-sector concerts and
tourism). However, the message of
the two reports is the same: parks
and recreation and outdoor recreation bring many benefits to Americans, including a robust economic
contribution to local communities
throughout our nation.

Construction Spending
According to another report, capital
spending by state and local government gained traction in 2018, eight
years into the economic recovery.
The bad news is that parks and recreation has not necessarily benefited
from this largess...at least not yet.
The U.S. Census Bureau reports
that the value of publicly funded
construction put in place over the
first 10 months of 2018 totaled nearly $239 billion. This was 7.9 percent
ahead of the same 10 months in
2017 and suggests that 2018 was the
best year for publicly funded construction spending since 2009.
This is noteworthy as public-sector construction experienced a
drastic slump during and after the
Great Recession. The value of public-sector construction bottomed
out in 2013 after having fallen 14
percent below its 2009 peak value.
Should data trends through October hold for the remaining final
two months, 2018 will go down as
the second-best year ever for state
and local government construction
spending. A December article in
The Wall Street Journal attributed
the increase in state and local gov-

ernment capital spending to higher
tax collections, boosted by surging
sales tax receipts (helped by greater
consumer spending and improved
real estate valuations).
Unfortunately, the increase in
capital spending on parks has not
been as robust. In fact, state and local government spending on parks
totaled $4.352 billion through the
first 10 months of 2018, down 8
percent from the same 10 months of
2017. Also falling behind their 2017
paces were spending on neighborhood centers (down 15 percent from
the first 10 months of 2017 to $908
million) and social centers (down 9
percent to $1.149 billion).
So, what does this foretell for
2019? Will the surge in public-sector construction spread over to park
and recreation agencies, driven in
part by the growing appreciation
of the economic benefits of these
amenities? Or, will a wobbly economic recovery lead to a pullback
in public spending, further pressuring park and recreation capital expenditures? Time will tell.
Kevin Roth, Ph.D., is NRPA's Vice President of Professional
Development, Research and Technology (kroth@nrpa.org).

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February 2019 - Parks & Recreation

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of February 2019 - Parks & Recreation
