State removes unusually high Austin F1 job estimates

The state comptroller’s office today removed numbers from its economic development Web site that appeared to show that the Formula One race scheduled to begin in Austin in 2012 would create far more jobs than previously stated.

We wrote about the unusually high numbers on Friday. According to calculations posted earlier in the week on the comptroller’s site, texasahead.org, hosting the F1 race would directly produce 3,770 new jobs, and indirectly create another 1,075.

Those numbers were far different than estimates distributed by local promoter Formula One United States Grand Prix, which this past summer predicted that it would employ about 1,500 workers to build the $200 million facility east of Austin-Bergstrom International Airport, and hire about 1,200 temporary workers to staff three-day race weekends.

Comptroller Susan Combs has touted the economic benefits of Texas hosting an F1 race as good reason for Texas to commit to giving local Formula One organizers $25 million a year for 10 years out of the Major Events Trust Fund.

Robert Wood, the comptroller’s economic development director, said the larger job predictions had been generated by standard economic modeling formulas, and appeared to count anyone who might handle an F1-related dollar as a created job. He said he would consider removing the table showing the numbers if it seemed confusing.

Today, he apparently did. The comptroller’s office did not respond immediately to requests for comment. The Statesman