CAMBRIDGE, NE (Feb. 21, 2018) - A 2017 Annual Report from the Cambridge Economic Development Board (ED) maps the course of the city’s economic-development budget to demonstrate to residents how the money is being invested to help ensure a healthy future for the small-town lifestyle they love so much.
“The vast majority of our funding for economic development in Cambridge comes from taxpayers, through collection of state-legislated and locally paid LB840 taxes,” said Cambridge Economic Development Board President Tom Shoemaker. “With that in mind, we believe it’s important for us to report back to taxpayers to demonstrate how their dollars are working for them.”
To make sure that all who pay into the fund get to review the report, the ED Board directed a postal mailing to every household in the 69022 zip code. If you live in Cambridge and haven’t received your personal copy yet, watch your mailbox in the coming week. It’s also available for public viewing on the city website, at this link:
As you peruse this report, you’ll get a sense of the types of projects that the Board is accomplishing toward its 2020 Vision to ‘attain a population, which supports a sustainable community with diverse businesses, growing tax and economic base, affordable living rates, maintained infrastructure, and exceptional public facilities.’
“The last year was a rebuilding one, of sorts,” Shoemaker said, “as we filled our full-time staff executive-director position March 1 and were able to step up our efforts.”
During the year, the Board’s main focus was on finding ways to increase the supply of affordable housing for Cambridge families. Currently, that centers on the Harvest Meadows subdivision on the east end of town.
“In 2017, we laid the groundwork for more home construction in the subdivision, including offering cash incentives to builders – a project that was touted at the state level as a leader in Nebraska, with a number of other communities since adopting similar free-lot and builder-incentive programs,” Shoemaker said.
Of course, the Annual Report includes a financial statement for the Board. In addition, you’ll also find results from programs including down-payment assistance; revolving business loans; internship grants; development of a new citywide website; marketing and advertising about Cambridge statewide, regionally and nationally; social-media business promotions; and communicating with and supporting existing businesses, to name a few.
In addition, the report identifies the nine volunteer members of the current Cambridge Economic Development Board, so that you know who is making the budget decisions for the program on your behalf. And if you ever have any questions about economic development efforts in Cambridge, don’t hesitate to contact our executive director at 308-655-1056 or [email protected] — or any one of the nine Economic Development Board members listed in the report.