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STATEWIDE — You’ve heard a lot of Indiana politicians promise billions of dollars in economic development and thousands of new jobs. However, those plans are not concrete.
“These are commitments, these haven’t happened, these aren’t guaranteed,” says Gerry Dick with Inside Indiana Business.
Dick tells WIBC’s Tony Katz while Indiana’s Governor Eric Holcomb and Secretary of Commerce David Rosenburg may continue to promote new billion-dollar projects, those are not set in stone, thus you shouldn’t set your expectations too high.
One development that Dick does believe will have a significant impact on the Hoosier State is Lilly Endowment’s 250-million-dollar grant, announced by Governor Holcomb during last week’s State of the State Address.
“250-million-dollars will go to things like blight removal (abandoned building removal) in communities around the state, which especially in smaller communities, is a big issue,” Dick explains.
From Rosenburg’s perspective, Indiana is set to make 2024 a game-changing economic year, “Secretary of Commerce will tell you there’s 100-billion-dollars’ worth of opportunities in the pipeline. Now, those are deals that Indiana is going after and could get,” Dick continues, “the pipeline of deals is strong and perhaps as strong as it’s ever been. He (Rosenburg) in fact suggested on the show (Inside Indiana Business) this weekend that there will be one or two major announcements here yet in the first quarter of 2024.”
Gerry Dick says while you should remain somewhat skeptical and have a “wait and see” attitude, the available economic data from Kokomo to South Bend to Terre Haute should suggest that there is some success being had across the Hoosier State.
