The latest plan from the Democratic gubernatorial candidate would reverse the newest iteration of the Indiana Economic Development Corp. and return it to its “original purpose” — deprioritizing efforts to attract large businesses to refocus on workforce and quality of life improvements.
Jennifer McCormick, with running mate Terry Goodin, accused the quasi-public agency of “picking winners and losers among regions” in a Thursday plan and said it had “overextended its original mandate by acting as a real estate developer” — particularly with its approach to the Lebanon LEAP district.
“Although we have had regional pockets of success, we still have 92 counties that we need to pay attention to and that we need to stay focused on because all Hoosiers deserve a strong economic development plan,” McCormick told reporters in a virtual press conference. “… Things that are going well with the IEDC, we are committed to making sure that carries on. Things that are not — like the blank checkbook and the question of spending and the lack of transparency and accountability and the question of our natural resources — there are a lot of pieces that we need to rein in.”
Some of the plan’s contents stem from conversations McCormick said she had at town halls while other priorities build upon mounting bipartisan criticism over the IEDC’s actions.
Mike Braun, the Republican candidate for governor, has also called for shifting the entity’s approach away from big businesses.
McCormick and Braun — along with Libertarian Donald Rainwater — will appear on the general election ballot in November. The last day to register to vote is Oct. 7.
Tenets of the IEDC plan
McCormick acknowledged that Indiana “has been a very business friendly state” — the state ranks highly for its good tax environment for businesses — but said there is room for improvement.
With regards to LEAP, a multi-billion dollar effort to set up a corporate park in Boone County, McCormick called for a “pause in operations.” So far, only one company — Eli Lilly — has unveiled their plans for the area, while other projects appear to be on hold pending water management concerns.
“There are a bunch of pieces that aren’t even in place, but yet we’re moving forward with a lot of unknowns,” McCormick said. “I’m not privy to a lot of that information, like most Hoosiers, because there has been such a lack of transparency and accountability around the LEAP project.”
The plan called for better insight into how the IEDC doles out tax abatements and incentives, adding to a long-running push from Democrat lawmakers for more public information.
Twenty-year abatements are “quite long” McCormick said, pushing to shorten the tax deduction for investments in specific economic revitalization areas. She said she would work with a business roundtable to identify a shorter timeline to stop diverting money away from local government budgets for schools and law enforcement.
One of the biggest challenges for businesses in Indiana is attracting new talent or retaining it. That should be one of the priorities for the IEDC, McCormick said.
“We must have an educated and healthy workforce. And we must have an educated and healthy consumer,” McCormick said. “We cannot get much done if that is not happening in the state of Indiana.”
McCormick, a teacher, said in the plan that Indiana ranked 41st in educational attainment and needed to increase funding for pre-K, K-12 and higher education. Workforce training programs in colleges and universities — partnered with union apprenticeships — would attract “higher-paying industries and encourage Hoosier young professionals to stay in Indiana.”
“… human capital is a huge problem in the state of Indiana, and that is for a lot of different reasons, and a big chunk of that is our quality of life,” McCormick said.
McCormick praised ongoing efforts like the popular READI grant program, which incentivizes public-private partnerships to improve the quality of life regionally through the IEDC, along with the Stellar Pathway Program — the latter of which is housed at the Office of Community and Rural Affairs.
Both would continue under her administration if she were elected, she said, but could be tweaked to allow for more flexibility.
Additionally, the IEDC’s mission should be more geared toward reducing barriers and “cumbersome” licensing requirements for small businesses while phasing in taxes for new businesses to ease their start-ups.
“The playing field has got to be leveled,” McCormick told reporters. “I just feel that a lot of people feel it’s out of balance.”
Other proposals
Portions of McCormick’s plan would tackle issues outside of the traditional economic sphere, including child care. She cited a recent study from the Indiana Chamber of Commerce that calculated the $4.2 billion annual loss due to child care shortages, mainly due to lost wages and lost parental productivity.
She noted that Indiana doesn’t compel parents to enroll their children in school until the age of seven, and that pre-K options are unavailable in many parts of the state.
“It is expensive, we understand that, but it’s also a huge investment into Hoosiers and into the economic development of our state,” McCormick said.
When asked how she’d find funding for her proposals, she said, “we seem to find billions for the LEAP project with very little accountability. So the dollars are there, it’s just how we’re prioritizing it and budgeting it.”
Buy-in from the General Assembly will be necessary for many of these proposals. Past resistance to such ideas shows how imbalanced the state’s Republican leadership has become, McCormick said.
“When you have no balance at the Statehouse, you don’t have solutions. And so we are where we are because of that 20 years of a (Republican) supermajority,” McCormick said.
By Whitney Downard — The Indiana Capital Chronicle is an independent, not-for-profit news organization that covers state government, policy and elections.
