SEPTA's operating expenditures in 2017 were about $1.35 billion. The agency's economic impact, estimated at more than $3 billion, represents SEPTA funds that recirculate through the state economy. Econsult's Ethan Conner-Ross said it includes money spent on construction projects, train parts, and equipment bought from around the state, and the wages of 9,400 SEPTA employees. Those dollars in turn generate "spillover impacts" that support a range of non-SEPTA jobs. And tens of millions of those dollars find their way into counties in the central and western part of the state.