As this blog has frequently discussed, it’s well known that South Carolina heavily benefits from military and defense industry spending. This spending is one of the closest things to ‘free money’ that South Carolina can receive from the federal government, with defense projects creating local jobs, bringing servicemembers and their families to South Carolina, and directly supporting small businesses as well as attracting business from additional companies and industries from outside the immediate area. However, the direct impact of military spending is harder to measure, usually requiring specialized knowledge and data to quantify just how many ripples a military or defense industry dollar makes in a local economy. Thankfully, there are organizations which are solely dedicated to measuring those exact impacts, and one of those organizations, the Department of Defense’s Office of Local Defense Community Cooperation (OLDCC) recently released their yearly report quantifying how defense dollars are spent across the nation.
The report specifically details the Department of Defense spending data for all fifty states plus the District of Columbia for fiscal year 2022 (October 2021 – October 2022). In addition to the raw numbers of spending, the report also shows each state’s share of total defense spending, how defense spending impacts state Gross Domestic Product, and state rankings in each category of spending and impact. The whole report is an excellent tool to see just where our tax dollars are spent by the Department of Defense and we highly recommend any curious readers to give it a glance by going to the OLDCC website: https://oldcc.gov/sites/default/files/defense-spending-rpts/OLDCC_DSBS_FY2022_FINAL_WEB.pdf
Looking at South Carolina in particular, the Department of Defense invested $6.3 Billion in the state in fiscal year 2022 which amounted to 2.1% of state GDP and over $1,100 per South Carolina resident. South Carolina ranked middle of the pack at 26 in the nation for total defense investment and similarly in defense contract and grant spending (28th and 27th in the nation respectively). Our own Beaufort County is a key portion of the state’s total defense investments with $182.9 million in defense contract spending plus $325.6 million in defense personnel spending taking place within the county’s borders. Beaufort can also boast the largest concentration of active duty military personnel in the state with close to 10,000 active uniformed servicemembers, just edging out Richland county.
While these numbers can prove just how much defense spending provides to South Carolina and our local communities, the most encouraging data this report provides is our state’s positive trend of growth in military spending. South Carolina increased its share of US defense spending from 2021 to 2022 by over $200 million dollars and rose in nearly every category measured by OLDCC’s data. Beaufort in particular saw a whopping rise of $60 million in defense contract spending across this same time period. These are numbers that every citizen of the state and of Beaufort County can be proud of and we hope to see them continue to rise as South Carolina supports this nation’s strong military and increases prosperity for residents across the state.
