Indiana Economic News - Hoping for the Best Means Change

 Indiana touts its being a business-friendly state.

Then why do we not have better jobs?

Indiana keeps its taxes low to attract businesses.

If getting businesses means low taxes, then why don't all businesses move to India?

What do we, the people who live here, get for those low business taxes?

Whitney Downard points out one thing we do not get: Report: state loses out on $4.2B annually due to child care shortage.

The lack of affordable child care options in the state is costing the state — not just on an individual level, but also in terms of “economic potential,” according to a new study from the Indiana Chamber of Commerce and Early Learning Indiana. 

The price tag is $4.22 billion each year, of which $1.17 billion can be linked to annual loss in tax revenue. Other costs to economic productivity include the 57% of parents with young children who miss work or class because of child care problems. Or the 40% of parents, mostly women, who left the workforce “as a direct result of childcare-related issues.”

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However, the General Assembly will return in January with smaller reserves as well as long-term Medicaid funding problems and might not prioritize actions to close Indiana’s child care gap — though both the Republican and Democratic candidates for governor have discussed the state’s child care issues in their campaigns.

If you are a parent losing out on work or income because of your child-care costs, then why are you doing one or both of the following?

1. Not voting
2. Voting for Republicans?

McCormick drops economic proposal geared toward IEDC reform gives an overview of and links to the Democratic governor candidate's economic plans.

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. 

Candidate McCormick recognizes that tax dollars alone do not attract high-paying jobs if we do not have people to fill those jobs, so she is looking to the future.

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.

 She wants Hoosiers to have access to better jobs, not continue the serf-level jobs promoted by the Republicans.

 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.”

 This means money to improve the lives of working people, not just tossing out their tax dollars to a pie-in-the-sky gamble for Boone County.

sch 10:03 AM