Business leaders say economic plans fall short

INDIANAPOLIS -- Indiana's business leaders are criticizing state lawmakers for failing to put forth the economic development proposals they say are needed to reinvigorate Indiana's economy.\nGov. Frank O'Bannon's Energize Indiana plan, which would have spent $1.25 billion over 10 years toward economic development, appears doomed as the legislative session nears its April 24 end.\nIn its place, the Democrat-led House and the Republican-controlled Senate have their own, smaller-scale economic development plans.\nBut business leaders complain that those plans just don't go far enough to reverse decades of economic decline.\nKevin Brinegar, president of the Indiana Chamber of Commerce, said the state needs to invest much more in economic development.\nSteve Ferguson, chairman of the Bloomington medical device maker Cook Group, agreed. He said the plans under consideration are good, "but they're not enough."\nThose plans contain a diluted version of the Energize Indiana plan that includes a couple of university buildings, tax credits and financial incentives for technology companies.\nAll versions would put some money into the 21st Century Research & Technology Fund, which gives grants to companies working with university researchers to find products to develop and sell.\nWhatever the outcome of the current legislative session, entrepreneur Joe Garlich said he hopes enough funding materializes for technology grants that could help his Indianapolis company blossom.\nWith a $1.5 million grant from the 21st Century fund this summer, ComChem Technologies can continue researching cancer treatments.\nDrugs resulting from the research not only would attack blood vessels feeding cancer cells, potentially saving lives, but also bring about an expansion replete with good jobs.\nThree of ComChem's 10 employees make $80,000 to $100,000 a year -- the high salaries economic development officials hope to attract.\n"The bottom line is, it takes money," Garlich said of the investment needed to build his company. "You can't do this at home in your garage."\nIndiana's economic problems run far deeper than fallout from the 2001 recession. Hoosier paychecks have been slowly falling behind for three decades.\nIndiana has also created too few good jobs to replace well-paying but often low-skill manufacturing jobs pushed aside by new technology and overseas competition.\nO'Bannon's 10-year Energize Indiana proposal aimed to shift the economy from traditional manufacturing to new-economy sectors of advanced manufacturing, life sciences, information technology and logistics, and high-tech distribution.\nThe smattering of buildings, tax credits and financial incentives agreed on by the House and Senate don't approach what O'Bannon wanted and what some economists and business leaders say Indiana needs.\nFort Wayne Mayor Graham Richard stressed that doing nothing in the current legislative session is a "strategy for failure."\nRichard is a Democrat who chairs the Metropolitan Mayors Alliance, which lobbies the General Assembly on economic development issues.\nHe said the state in the long run must raise more money to invest in its future, whether from gambling proceeds, tobacco securitization or taxes.\nBut as the session winds to a close, odds of major economic development legislation becoming law are waning. One reason is that the Energize Indiana plan never enjoyed broad support.\n"We were never consulted," said Patrick Kiely, president of the Indiana Manufacturers Association.\nThe former House Republican budget negotiator, who talks about Energize Indiana in the past tense, wryly added: "We were called to a meeting about how we could help them pass it."\nEven Democratic lawmakers, who had no hand in writing the plan, share little enthusiasm for it.\nReferring to an early end to the session, House Speaker B. Patrick Bauer, D-South Bend, said: "I think we will take what we can and move on"