Pew Research chooses Indiana for initiative

Indiana was chosen today as one of seven states to be involved in the Pew Charitable Trusts’ 18-month Business Incentives Initiative. The Center for Regional Economic Competitiveness will also be involved in the initiative.

The initiative’s goal is to identify best practices related to business incentives for economic development and meeting the public’s need for transparency.

“Indiana remains committed to delivering both a business-friendly climate for job creators and a high level of transparency for Hoosier taxpayers,” Gov. Mike Pence said in a press release.

“By participating in this study and evaluating the way our state conducts business, we will ensure Indiana continues to maintain a competitive edge and provides Hoosiers with the top-notch, open and accountable service they deserve.”

Indiana applied to be a part of this initiative in February 2014. Multiple Indiana organizations, including the State Budget Agency, the Indiana Economic Development Corporation and the Department of Revenue contributed.

Three specific goals of the project are to identify effective ways to manage and assess economic development incentive policies and practices, improve data collection and reporting on incentive investments, and develop national standards and best practices states can use to successfully gather and report data on economic development incentives.

“Pew is partnering with Indiana to enhance the quality of information available to determine which tax incentives work, which do not and how these programs can be improved,” said Jeff Chapman, manager of the Pew Charitable Trusts’ project on economic development incentives, in a press release.

The other six participating states are Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Virginia.

Sydney Murray