After pressing the issue for more than a year, Mayor Fred Eisenberger along with his Council colleagues agreed to a substantial increase in the City's Economic Development (EcDev) budget for the 2008 fiscal year. The City's Economic Development Division (EcDev) has now been reorganized and infused with more staffing and financial resources with a new $1.5M investment in addition to the existing budgets in Economic Development and Community Renewal.
The additional $1.5M investment will create a robust Economic development drive to replace losses to the commercial / industrial base, replacing it with expanded and new commercial opportunities, jobs, and assessment growth. This will help us move away from relying on the residential tax base and instead, bring our community to long term financial sustainability.
With the economic development investment comes the creation of new positions including Business Development Manager and Senior Development Consultant. These positions will be responsible to expand business activities and increase business attraction as the City increases the supply of shovel-ready employment lands over the next few years.
These improvements will assist Hamilton in attracting key investments while bringing increased employment opportunities to our community which will ultimately improve the quality of life in our great city.