| The Economic Impacts of the Member Institutions of the HSSC HSSC is made up of six member institutions representing both the public and private sectors. These institutions are the University of South Carolina, the Medical University of South Carolina, Clemson University, Palmetto Health, Greenville Hospital System, and Spartanburg Regional Medical Center. Individually, these organizations are each a substantial driver of the South Carolina economy in that they each provide employment and income opportunities and have a mission that is important to the long-term health and growth of the state’s economy and South Carolinians.
As a group, the collaborative indeed plays a significant role in the state economy. During fiscal year 2004, the six institutions together employed about 47,100 people in South Carolina and provided these workers with total income of $2.4 billion. To put these figures in context, the level of employment directly associated with the collaborative represented 2.6 percent of all employment in South Carolina in 2004. Roughly one out of every 38 jobs in South Carolina is a job at one of the collaborative member institutions. Meanwhile, the total employee compensation of these workers amounted to about 3.3 percent of all compensation received by employees in South Carolina. Further, these numbers illustrate the fact that these organizations not only provide a substantial number of jobs, but these are jobs that provide compensations levels well above the state average.
However, the economic impact of the collaborative reaches beyond the jobs and incomes directly associated with the member organizations. These universities and hospitals inject money into the state economy not just by providing incomes to employees, but also by purchasing goods and services from other businesses in South Carolina. As these institutions and their employees spend money in the state’s economy, there is a ripple effect as funds continue to circulate through South Carolina businesses and households. Using a widely-accepted methodology for analyzing and estimating the economic ripple effects, we can form a better picture of the scope of the economic impact of the collaborative institutions. Overall, the total impact on economic output of these institutions was nearly $8.5 billion in fiscal year 2004. This represents the total impact on sales of businesses located in South Carolina, and includes the direct impacts of university and hospital expenditures, and the various ripple effects as both households and businesses buy goods and services from other in-state businesses. The total impact on employment during fiscal year 2004 is estimated to be 88,700 jobs. This is the number of positions in the state that were either directly or indirectly supported by the six member organizations. This level of employment amounts to 4.9 percent of all jobs in South Carolina. In other words, about one out of every 20 jobs in the state can be directly or indirectly attributed to the activities of the collaborative institutions. The total impact on employee compensation is more than $3.6 billion annually. Again, this figure includes the direct payroll expenditures of the organizations themselves as well as the payroll generated via the economic multiplier effects. This level of compensation represented 5.0 percent of all compensation received by all employees in South Carolina. In addition to these substantial economic impacts, these six institutions also accounted for about $244 million in state-level sales and individual income tax revenues. This is certainly a conservative estimate of government revenue attributable to the collaborative. Depending on the specific institution, the direct operations of these organizations will generate state and possibly local sales taxes on purchases, local property taxes, state and local charges, fees and miscellaneous taxes, and corporate income taxes. However, these various forms of government revenue can be difficult to estimate. One aspect of the impact on government revenues is more straightforward to estimate, however, and that is the impact on sales and income taxes due to the effects on household income. The household income impact of $3.6 billion in fiscal year 2004 is estimated to generate the $244 million in sales and income taxes for South Carolina state government.
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