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Anonymous ID: 20d64c Sept. 6, 2024, 2:24 p.m. No.21544391   🗄️.is 🔗kun

Hicks: Mike Pence's Regional Cities plan reveals the secret to Indiana's economic growth

Indiana’s Regional Cities Initiative is an example of one of the most innovative place-based economic development programs issued by any state.

 

A recent study authored by colleague Dagney Faulk and I conclusively links the program to employment growth in the counties that received the grant funds, and that linkage hints at long-term effects to regional economies. This first causal study should be important to Hoosier policymakers and be of interest to anyone who cares about Indiana’s future.

 

Gov. Mike Pence in 2015 proposed the Regional Cities Initiative, which would invest $40 million in two metropolitan regions. Behind the concept was a clear understanding that most economic growth was happening in cities with solid quality-of-life investments.

 

What is Regional Cities?

 

Making Indiana cities more attractive to families required local collaboration across jurisdictions, and communities that worked together were more likely to replicate the success of faster-growing cities around the nation. This focus was a huge departure from traditional economic development. There was no intent to “attract jobs.” Rather, regions were invited to consider infrastructure spending that would boost population, grow incomes or improve downtowns.

 

Eric Doden, then the president of the Indiana Economic Development Corp., spent a year traveling to every county explaining the program. When it was finally announced, eight regions prepared detailed plans for government spending that would attract people and private investment. A selection committee chose three regions — Fort Wayne, Evansville and South Bend/Elkhart — to receive funding.

 

https://www.indystar.com/story/opinion/columnists/2024/06/03/how-regional-cities-is-transforming-fort-wayne-evansville-south-bend/73912423007/