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"but an estimated increase of $97 million dollars in local business will probably change your mind."

Curious to know how they calculated that number.

SELECT impressive_number FROM out_of_thin_air;

Exactly, although you need a function to make the number look precise. (ex. $97 million but NOT $100 million)

True enough.

It'd be very interesting to collect a large pile of estimates like these and see if they come even close to following Benford's Law[1].

I would imagine that it's close to the inverse - a big pile of numbers that start with 9, and many many fewer that start with 1.