Our economic development, military relations and convention and visitor's bureau have the opportunity annually to discuss the previous years highlights in front of our commission. The meeting is also when the commission will consider annual funding agreements for each entity.
This past year our team has done an outstanding job in improving the economic vitality of our community and we look forward to discussing our ongoing activities.
As a preview, a few highlights of tomorrow's presentation includes:
- Economic Development - Some 899 new jobs were announced in 2022 which will provide over $700 million in new capital investment and $1 billion in personal income over 20 years. This should add over $13.9 million new retail sales tax over that period and an annual property tax return to the city of $7.8 million.
- Economic Development - Projects announced in 2022 included Scorpion Biological Services, Radiation Detection Technologies, HydroGraph and Cimarron Trailers, among others. It does not include the nearly 120 jobs expected over the next two years from NBAF.
- Economic Development and Tourism - Key projects were announced this year that will continue to make positive impacts on the community including the Museum of Art and Light, expansion of MATC campus, Midtown at Aggieville and the Edge Collaboration District.
- Tourism - Met and exceeded the 2022 booked meetings goal of 120 with 164 meetings booked through November, approaching numbers from the pre-covid year of 2018.
- Tourism - Won TIAK marketing award for best social media program and continued to grow Manhattan's image as the center of Kansas Christmas celebrations with the Spirit of the Holidays campaign.
- Military Relations - Assisted with state legislation that brought more funds to schools with military dependents as well as continuing to lead high quality programming that connects Fort Riley to Manhattan.
The commission will consider contracts for 2023 for the three programs. The Chamber's request for economic development is $493,000, the same as 2022 and matched dollar for dollar from private sources. The request for military affairs is $50,000 and is matched $2 for every $1 the city invests. The CVB request is a bit different in that the city typically invests 60-percent of the transient guest tax collections into marketing the community for meetings, conferences, sporting events and leisure travelers. That request is $1,299,733.
If you have time to attend, please consider coming to the meeting to support our staff members that are presenting. The meeting begins at 6 p.m. at city hall.