The Economic Impact of Maine’s Beaches by Michael LeVert, Maine State Economist, Maine State Planning Office

Moderated by Christine Feurt of the Wells National Estuarine Research Reserve, "Valuing Maine's Beaches" will feature Michael LeVert of the Maine State Planning Office, Charles Colgan of the Muskie School of Public Policy, and Linwood Pendleton of the Ocean Foundation.

Christine Feurt introduces Michael LeVert, the Maine State Economist at the Planning Office. He's also responsible for forecasting Maine's revenue and has a special interest in non-market values (like sunbathing and quality of life).

Michael LeVert: Mr. Levert starts by asking: How many of us are wearing a tie? It's pretty much just him. He's gonna keep it on, however.

We all know that Maine's beaches have economic value, and it's increasingly important to quantify that value. How much do the beaches help? How much would people pay to ensure that Maine's beaches will continue to be clean? He wishes he could give us a number, but it's not as easy as, say, an industry. Beach values aren't sold in markets, they're sunbathing, happiness, quality of life.

There are, however, some ways to explore the economic impact of Maine's beaches. First, beaches play a large role in Maine's tourist economy - tens of millions of dollars a year. Second, seasonal changes can be monitored. Third, you can look at beachside property values to see how much people are willing to pay to be near Maine's beaches.

Tourism is probably the easiest way to monitor the impact. Studies have shown that 13% of overnight visitors to Maine are here for the beaches. This brings 260 million dollars per year, in terms of meals, hotels, travel costs, gifts. These tourist dollars also help the local economy, as these new dollars encourage local workers to spend more. With this factored in, the total effect to Maine's economy is over 500 million dollars.

Seasonal Variation in economic indicators can help value Maine's beaches. His study looked at York County, where there is almost 3 times as much retail sales in the summer than in other seasons in Maine. He shows a graph that shows that restaurant and hotel sales in York County in the summer months are nearly a quarter of the whole county economy at that time. Also, turnpike traffic spikes in the summer months. York County exits have nearly 90 thousand vehicles per day in August, 30 thousand more than other months. Summer employment is also highest in the summer, at nearly twice the number in the winter. All this is to show that beaches play a huge role in the economy of York County, and, likely, other beach areas.

Maine law requires that tax assessors value property at its ‘fair market value’. For this analysis, they looked at how assessed land values correlate with their proximity to the beach. We excluded the value of any buildings or structures on the property.

In the York County beach towns, Beachfront land makes up 2% of the land area but 14% of the total value. If we look at properties that are within walking distance to a beach, they make up 5% of the land area but over a third of the total value.

He says we need better data about the people visiting Maine and their economic impact. How many people visit? How much do they pay for parking, etc? Instate v out-of-state tourists? Are there new models we can use to differentiate between different beaches? What types of beaches are most valuable?