More than $1 of every $9 earned or spent last year in San Luis Obispo County can be tied to Cal Poly, according to a new study by a finance professor at the university.

The study by Kenneth Riener says the university had a $1.12 billion impact on the local economy in 2003.

That compares to an impact of about $400 million that Riener's 1997 study found.

The totals were calculated by looking at numerous factors, including:

• spending by faculty, staff and students, as well as by Cal Poly retirees;

• university spending on local supplies, services and construction;

• visitors the university attracts;

• employee salaries;

• increasing student fees;

• increasing research and grant-related activity; and

• increased giving by Cal Poly alumni and friends.

The study is the latest of several Riener has conducted since 1990. The Poly Royal riots that year served as a catalyst. In 1998, Riener said he was interested in showing the positive impact the university has on the community, after the rioting put the campus in a negative light.

County Administrator David Edge said the total figure for Riener's new study seems reasonable, especially considering that a UCSB study recently reported a figure of $642 million as the local economic impact of Pacific Gas & Electric Co.'s Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant.

Edge said the biggest economic impact that Cal Poly represents is the same one contributed by city and county government as well as state facilities such as the California Men's Colony and Atascadero State Hospital.

"It adds a measure of stability and predictability," Edge said, since these employers don't have significant booms or busts from year to year.

Other local officials agree.

"The economic benefit is tremendous," said Shelly Stanwyck, the economic development manager for the city of San Luis Obispo. "We have the ability to function ... as if we're a much larger community than we are."

Good-paying jobs like many at Cal Poly could be responsible for the employment of an additional 12,000 people in the county, said Dave Garth, president of the San Luis Obispo Chamber of Commerce. The campus has a ripple effect in the community, with employees spending money that helps create jobs in other areas, such as retail and public service.

In that regard, a billion dollars isn't a tough figure to swallow, he said.

Living in a college town also has some intangible benefits that don't show up on such a study, some say.

"From a cultural standpoint, you can't beat it," Stanwyck said. "Living in a university town is very different ... with the synergy of people excited about learning and the cultural benefits."

Garth agrees.

"There would not be a San Luis Obispo as we know it without Cal Poly, and Cuesta (College), too," he said.

The full report will be released to the public at an 11 a.m. press conference Friday in Room 302 of the Orfalea College of Business. It will also be available after 1 p.m. on the college's Web site at www.cob.calpoly.edu.