All Indiana counties getting part of $500M regional grants
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - All 92 Indiana counties will get a piece of the $500 million in regional development grants being handed out by state officials, an economic development agency decided Tuesday.
The Indiana Economic Development Corp. board approved awarding money to all 17 regional groups that submitted proposals for the program encouraging regional cooperation on projects to attract residents and businesses.
Five regions will receive the maximum $50 million grants from the program the state created with federal COVID-19 relief funding. Those are northwestern Indiana and ones clustered around Evansville, Fort Wayne, South Bend and New Albany.
Those regions have the potential to pull in people from out of state, particularly the nearby Chicago and Louisville, Kentucky, areas, said Mark Wasky, the development agency's vice president of innovation and strategic initiatives.
'œAll of those are kind of gateways to the state in many ways,'ť Wasky told The Associated Press. 'œThey're located within areas that present particular opportunities for the state to be able to leverage large urban areas to attract talent.'ť
Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb proposed creating the grant program in January and said Tuesday it had encouraged local leaders to look beyond their own city and county lines.
'œThis truly is a rising tide lifts all boats statewide, simultaneous, and I would say on an unprecedented scale, all at once over the course of the next few years,'ť Holcomb said.
The state board also approved $30 million grants for four regions and another four will get $20 million. Three others were approved for $15 million and one is receiving $5 million.
Wasky said those reviewing the proposals believed it was important to give money to all the regions in order to support ongoing cooperation.
'œThe importance of encouraging regions to continue down this path was of significant importance for us to make sure that everybody walked away with something rather than feeling like they were left empty handed,'ť he said.
The Regional Economic Acceleration and Development Initiative program received proposals outlining hundreds of projects for large cities and rural towns, including subsidies to encourage more housing construction, creating high-tech business locations and building new recreation facilities.
The Republican-dominated Legislature initially dedicated $150 million toward the program. That was increased to $500 million in April as the state budget was bolstered by $3 billion in federal COVID-19 relief funding.
Indiana Democrats have faulted Republicans for claiming credit for the regional grant program while the state's entire GOP congressional delegation opposed its funding source, the American Rescue Plan signed in March by President Joe Biden.
The program comes as Indiana has seen many years of uneven economic and population growth. The 2020 census found that Indiana's population grew 4.7% over the past decade, with Indianapolis and its surrounding counties seeing three-quarters of that growth. Meanwhile, much of rural Indiana shrank as 49 of the state's 92 counties lost population.
All the regional organizations were told they had to match their state grant funding requests with four times as much money from local government or private investment sources.
Work won't start immediately on many of the planned projects as Wasky said federal rules require money to be committed to specific projects by the end of 2024 and spent by the end of 2026.
The state grant program resembles the Regional Cities Initiative that then-Gov. Mike Pence pushed for in 2015 and awarded $42 million grants toward three regional plans for the Fort Wayne, Evansville and South Bend areas, leaving four other regional organizations empty-handed. Supporters lauded its success, but Holcomb and Republican legislators didn't pursue more money for it when a new two-year state budget was adopted in 2019.