Interesting idea from gubernatorial hopeful, Jill Long Thompson, for a tiered system of economic development incentives. I’m not sure whether I agree or disagree, but it shows she’s putting some thought into these issues.
Every Indiana county would be placed into one of three tiers based upon a county’s unemployment rate, median household income, population growth and assessed property value per capita.
For an incentive, companies would have to provide “good-paying jobs,†which Thompson said are jobs that pay above the county average wage, and offer health insurance, paying at least 50 percent of the health-insurance premiums.
Under the plan, “tier 1†counties would be eligible for a $3,500 tax credit per new job with a requirement of creating at least five jobs and receive a 7 percent tax credit for eligible business property costs; “tier 2†counties would receive a $2,500 tax credit per new job with at least 10 jobs created and a 5 percent tax credit for eligible business property costs of more than $1 million.
A “tier 3†county would receive a $1,000 tax credit per new job with at least 15 jobs created and a 3.5 percent tax credit for eligible business property costs of more than $2 million.
In addition, companies cannot owe back taxes and cannot have received a significant environmental violation notice from the state within the previous five years.
Update The Schellinger campaign is apparently critical of this tiered plan, suggesting that it would have the effect of pitting county against county. He also suggests that tax incentives aren’t typically the most important criteria for prospective employers. Instead, such employers are usually concerned about the area’s quality of life, the quality of its education system, and the quality of its workforce.
Further, the campaign suggests that the plan may place further strains on local government financing specifically and have unintended consequences generally. Instead, Mr. Schellinger is promoting his
Instead, he is promoting his “Pick Up Indiana” jobs plan. There is a fair amount of detail at the linked site which I don’t have time to read at the moment, but the 3 overarching components of the plan seem to be: 1) Increase workforce skills training; 2) Work with small businesses; and 3) Promote economic development through “green collar” jobs.
I honestly don’t think either approach matters, since the root of the problem seems to be that we have a workforce geared for manufacturing jobs in a world where manufacturing jobs are heading away.
So the best Mitch can do is get distribution center jobs, really, outside the odd Honda plant announcement.
You’d think a state with half the Legislature working for Ivy Tech would have seen this trend and done something about it by now.
Joe,
The great thing about a sinecure is that the compensation does not demand much in the way of thought, let alone prognostication.