Hi, I'm Jeff Rea, your host for Economic Outlook.

Welcome to our show, where each week we take a deep dive into the regional economy and the people, the companies, the communities and the projects that are helping our region grow.

In 2012, the Indiana Chamber launched its Indiana Vision 2025 plan aimed at ensuring the state grows as it should attract new residents and businesses and competes with other states.

We'll take a closer look at the progress towards that plan with the 2021 scorecard coming up on Economic Outlook.

Some plans sit on a shelf.

Others become an active part of the day to day activity of an organization.

The latter is true of the Indiana Vision 2025 program in Indiana Chamber initiative that has driven policy action to help improve the state of Indiana performance on a variety of key metrics.

Each year, the chamber reports back on the state's progress toward those goals.

Today, we're going to take a closer look at the state progress, as well as how things look in our region.

Joining me for that conversation is Adam Berry, the vice president of economic development and technology at the Indiana Chamber of Commerce.

Just one other note before we get started here at WNIT.

We're respecting social distancing and as such, have both our host and our guest joining us today virtually instead of in person.

Adam, welcome.

Glad to have you back today.

Hey, I'm thrilled to be here, Jeff.

It's unfortunate I'm not in South Bend.

I always love the opportunity to come off and catch a Cubs game, especially.

Yeah, well, we love having you up here.

And we'll look forward as things are getting back to normal and to having you come up and visit.

We got some--some good things happening.

And-- and Adam, we've had you on before and we're thrilled to have you back this year.

We've been fans of this Indiana Vision 2025 that the fact that you've kind of laid out a roadmap of for Indiana over the next several years, it's hard to believe we're nine years into it now.

So but for our viewers who maybe aren't familiar, don't remember our previous conversation, can you help remind them a little bit about what the Indiana vision 2025 plan is?

Sure.

So at a very high level.

Indiana Vision 2025 is sort of the second iteration of the chamber's economic development playbook, if you will.

So there was the Indiana Vision 2010.

And then as that sort of started to come to its expiration date, a statewide task force of economic development leaders and stakeholders came together and drafted Indiana Vision 2025, which was published about a decade ago, really with the idea of what--what steps or goals, if you will, should Indiana strive to achieve in order to ensure its economic progress and really the prosperity for Hoosiers?

So, Adam, when I think about plans, sometimes, you know, some of them teased in the open, set on a shelf and some of them become very active, talk just generally about your--how you've integrated this into your the daily work of the Indiana Chamber, that it's a very active, living, breathing plan.

Tell us about how you've done that.

Yes.

So well, just personal background.

When I worked on Governor Pence's campaign and then in his office, we had a copy of the Indiana Vision 2025 plan and the report cards sitting on our desk.

We really relied on on this as a framework for what was the campaign agenda, parts of it, as well as his governing agenda.

And really, when it comes to my day to day work at the chamber today, really, that the goals and the, really, the metrics are used by not just myself, but by our policy--policy committees, where we--we--we developed our legislative business issues, which really sort of establish the outline of the framework for the--the initiatives that we take over to the state house.

But at the end of the day, really, everything is sort of look through the lens of the Indiana Vision 2025 plan and the report cards are important to measure the progress and where we're not making sufficient progress.

Well, then we need to decide.

OK, well then how can we address that?

Do we need to pursue legislative action, administrative action or talk to the governor's office about an executive order?

So really, it is--it is our playbook.

It's what we use daily to really frame our lobbying efforts at the chamber.

Adam, one more question before we get into the actual data.

So obviously, when you were looking into your crystal ball almost a decade ago and nowhere did it reveal that a global pandemic might occur and and potentially devastate the economy, at least for a short period of time.

How do you adjust when when something like that comes along?

It generally has the pandemic impacted things significantly or will we see it impacted significantly down the road?

I have to believe that we will.

What--what's--what's nice about this report card, even though it's been published in 2021, much of the data that is captured is from 2019.

It's just the most recently available data.

It's 2019 that was published in reports in 2020 and 2021 that we're using.

Now, it's--this is a great opportunity to plug what our new initiative at the chamber which is accelerating at the end of Vision 2025 plus which is an initiative looking at the third iteration of the plan which by-- by its--by it's very timing, has no choice but to account for the global pandemic, the impact on on the state and how that's going to skew the data we've been looking at for the last ten years.

So fortunately for our conversation today, we don't have to adjust so much for the pandemic, but going forward is certainly that has to be taken into account.

Great.

All right, Adam, thanks.

So I'd like to dove a little bit more into the details.

And when I think a little bit about the--the--I think of my own report card experience sometimes I was pretty excited to share them with my parents and others, and sometimes I wasn't as excited about it.

So--So you've got the first look here at the report card.

Is this something that we'd be excited to share with our parents and other folks?

Well, there's an old saying that you can make data, say whatever you want to do.

And so I'm going to give you a two part answer.

On the one hand, there are things that you can find negative about the report card, but on the other, it's maybe not as necessarily bleak as it might first appear.

So, for example, when you look at just Indiana's rankings, how Indiana compares against the other forty nine states, we actually decreased the number of rankings compared to 2019.

So we dropped in more rankings than we increased compared to the 2019 report card.

Not only that, we declined at a steeper rate.

So where we declined, where rankings declined, we declined on an average of 6.1 spots.

Our improved rankings was only 3.6 spots.

So from that perspective, not only did we decline in more areas and more rankings than we improve, but we declined a steeper rate.

But as I say, it's not maybe not as weak as what it mightfirst appear because when you look at the raw scores, so just comparing Indiana to itself, we actually our raw scores improved in 31 metrics and declined in 20 metrics.

And why that's important is because just throw out how Indiana compares to the other 49 states.

Compare--throw out how--how we fare against the national average on these--on these rankings, the fact that we--our raw scores improved in 31 metrics compared to 20 shows, it's evidence that we are making incremental progress as a state on the issues and on the metrics that matter most.

So back to thinking about my parents.

I might highlight that I did well in math or science or whatever.

So let's spend a little time talking about some of those categories where Indiana either made significant progress or traditionally has done very well.

What are--what are the things that that our viewers and Hoosiers should be most proud of in terms of the progress that's being made?

Sure.

So two things stand out.

First is our increase from 87 percent or 86 percent of the population to 93 percent of the population who have access to high speed broadband.

And what makes the 7 percent increase even more impressive is that the national average declined by 4.5 percent because of the way that the FCC defines high speed broadband.

Now, only less than 85 percent of our population has actually adopted high speed broadband.

But it just goes to show the investment by our Internet service providers and buy in at the state level is starting to pay dividends.

Now, the pandemic sort of showed the disparities and who has access and who doesn't.

So that's something that we need to to address, especially if you can afford high speed broadband.

Let's say another area to point out is the jump in our portion of adult population to have at least an associate's degree or high quality industry credentials.

Now, Indiana ranks 37 in the nation in terms of what portion of the state has at least a high industry recognized credential.

But we've seen a 20 percent jump over the last four years in this area and a 40 percent jump in the last decade.

And if we just add, so we're at 48.3 percent of Hoosiers who have at least an associate's degree or high, high quality credential.

If we just had five percent, we'll move into the top 20.

And if we achieve our goal of 60 percent of Hoosiers who have an associate's degree or a high quality credential, we would be number 30-- we would be number 3 in the country.

And there's plenty of evidence to show that there are more institutions and organizations getting into this idea of supplying and awarding industry credentials.

There's been a 500 per cent increase in the number of credentials and certificates that have been awarded over the last decade.

And that number is just continuing to grow.

That has to be welcome news for employers in particular who are looking for workers who have a certain skill level, and I think I appreciate hearing kind of good updates like that.

Yeah.

And to answer the second part of your question, maybe where we're not faring so well, which directly ties into this idea of professional credentials as per capita income, despite our state increasing our net per capita income, we still rank in the bottom 10 states, bottom 10 in the states and just raw number of per capita income.

And when you adjust it for cost of living, it just moves us into the middle of the pack and we're just not moving further fast enough in that area.

And probably the most disappointing or surprising aspect or finding the report card is that we went from fifth to mid twenties, 26 in terms of net job employment or net--net jobs gained at firms that are six years old and older.

So what this shows is that our older firms, of which, by the way, we have far more firms that are 16 years old and older than we do firms that are zero to five years old.

What this shows is that our older firms are just not creating enough jobs fast enough.

And then when you tie that in with our perennially poor rankings in terms of total jobs, total employment at younger firms and our inability to spur entrepreneurial--entrepreneurism and new business creation, it just adds up to a daunting, daunting task.

The state has had to continue providing high quality jobs.

So, Adam, I want to dove in, like just to maybe get a few more details, initially when the plan came out, I would call it four main categories with infrastructure and business, climate and talent and dynamic and creative culture and stuff.

So--so maybe--we--maybe dissect a few of those a little bit.

And let me ask about infrastructure, for example, because it's gaining a lot of attention, especially nationally.

There's this conversation about doing a national infrastructure bill that would pump more dollars in to make improvements.

How--how is Indiana doing on the infrastructure side?

Right.

So Governor Holcomb's administration has prioritized our roads and bridges and investment in our roads and bridges.

And this year in our report card, we've--we've adjusted the state road spending metric.

So instead of just looking at in terms of raw dollars, how much we're throwing it at our roads and our bridges, we cost adjusted that for actually what it how much money it costs to build a lane mile.

And so we just want to show, the point of the metric is to show is Indiana with its with its investment, getting a good bang for its buck.

And certainly it has proved that out.

So Indiana, look, we're the crossroads of America, still my favorite license plate, by the way.

And so we have a never ending list of road projects in the state, especially in northern Indiana.

So with a never ending list of highway and bridge projects, the more money is necessary both at the state and federal level.

But taking a snapshot, looking at where we are today, it shows that not only are we investing more in our infrastructure, but also the money is being spent relatively wisely.

So top of mind of of employers in particular is is back to talent and you kind of touched a little bit on--on some of the metrics in terms of developing the talent.

But--but I think maybe two things, not only developing the talent we have here, but attracting talent from outside.

So--so talent obviously is one of the four core areas.

How are we doing on the on the talent side there?

So I would say that the metric to look at there is what is our net in migration into the state and this falls under the dynamic and creative culture driver.

And what the report card shows is that Indiana was one of 23 states to actually have a positive net in migration, the only state in the Midwest besides Tennessee that actually had a positive inflow of--of residents and population.

And I would say and we had the forum today and we've had multiple forums, it always comes up.

What is Indiana doing and how are we addressing this talent shortage in the state?

And I think that the main--the main initiative we can point to it came out of this year's legislative session with the five hundred million dollar investment in the Ready program, which is sort of a Regional Cities 2.0, which South Bend was beneficiary of.

It's just what can we do?

What can our regions do?

What can our communities do to come together, collaborate and identify quality of place, quality of life initiatives, programs that are going to make the regions themselves attractive to individuals and businesses from outside of the state.

So it's--it's great that we're adding population which has not always been the case we've reported in our--in our previous report cards.

But we're taking steps in the right direction in that area as well.

You mentioned the General Assembly, so I'm going to divert here for just--just a quick second.

Other and obviously we're really excited about Ready and what that could mean for our region.

Are there--were there other major wins this year that you think either were part of your agenda and help us do better on future report cards or what were some other key--key things that came out of this session that will help us in the future?

Well, so a lot was made of the the investment in teacher pay and K through 12 education.

Fifty one percent of our budget is K through 12 education.

I would argue that you--while--while you have to look at teacher pay, admittedly we--we do fall short.

I think we're mid thirties in terms of our teacher pay in state rankings.

It's not in the report card.

But we also have to look at are we really approaching solving this problem of K through 12 education the right way with 289 school districts in our state?

Is there an opportunity to consolidate and invest in, invest in the student, make sure there's a lot of money being being being used in the most effective way?

Broadband received the two hundred and fifty million dollar infusion, which as I mentioned before, we've made significant progress in broadband.

But there's still plenty--plenty that we need to fund--that we need to make sure that everyone has an opportunity to access and adopt high speed broadband.

My boss, Kevin Brinegar would say while there were great strides made in this year's General Assembly, thanks in large part to three billion dollars of sound money, I guess you could call it from the federal government.

He likes to point out that we did not achieve some of the some of our agenda items, namely work, share, and also increasing the cigarette tax.

We proposed a two dollar increase.

And we--we're going to talk a little bit about the regional metrics.

But smoking in the state is a huge issue.

It costs employers six and a half billion dollars in terms of lost, lost productivity and so--and health care costs.

And so I think that the more we can address our health issues and our health metrics, a lot--a lot of the other agenda items of the chamber and metrics that we evaluate in the report card will will improve as well.

I think a great point there, Adam.

And I remember obviously from previous scorecards and this, that especially on the health side, that Indiana traditionally hasn't stacked up as well.

And again, you--you reminded us that it's a six billion dollar expense.

And just help me clarify that.

So that's suggesting it's six billion dollars more than we would pay if we were just average.

Is that right or something like that?

Or help us quantify what you mean by that.

So smoking.

So because the impacts of our smoking population to our employers.

Now, every state is not as if we're going to have a zero percent smoking population.

That's never going to happen.

But because we have so many people in the state who smoke, the impact to businesses in terms of health insurance premiums, the increase in costs that hospitals charge, that all--all paid for in large part by the employer and the employer paying for health--health insurance premiums lost productivity.

I mean, think about how many smoking breaks, people take and the time spent outside chit chatting instead of at the desk working.

The time that folks have to take off, whether it's because of a short term illness or they--or because of cancer or whatever the case may be.

All of that, all of that adds up to a cost incurred by--by the employer.

And that total is six and a half billion dollars, which when you have a state ranking of 40th worst state in terms of smoking.

One can deduce that other states don't--and other important employers in other states don't incur such a significant cost.

OK, thank you.

A lot to cover here and I really apologize.

So in our last couple of minutes here, though, let's get to regionals.

So what are some things that, you know, obviously, that the health of the overall state, each of us regionally, can do what we can to help the state achieve these metrics?

How are we doing on some of those key regional metrics?

Yes.

So you ask the previous question about looking at a driver and dissecting it.

Well, that--our attractive business climate driver, I--I'd like to say is--is it--is--it's really--tells two different but equally compelling stories.

And the same can be said about the north central region of the state.

And when I talk about the north central region, what we did is look at, we broke up our regional metrics into how the Department of Workforce Development breaks up its regions.

So we're looking at the five county area, St. Joseph, Marshall, Elkhart and Fulton and Kosciusko County.

And what we see is that this--this region has made significant progress in a lot of important metrics.

You've increased high school graduation rate from 82 percent to 91 percent.

The portion of your population with an associate's degree has increased from 32 percent to 35 percent.

Bachelor's degrees has improved from 24 to 25 percent.

And the portion of your population with science and engineering degrees has also improved significantly.

But then there's the flip side of the coin, which really comes down to state metrics.

And the north central region is not alone here.

But what we--what we found is that the smoking rate has increased in your region from 20 percent to 22 percent.

The obesity rate has increased from 33 and a half to 35 percent.

And unfortunately, the drug deaths have also ticked up slightly from 18.8 drug deaths per one hundred thousand population to just over 19.

So whereas those are contrary--the drug testing rate, contrary to what the state-- the state as a whole has decreased slightly and its smoking rate increased significantly in its obesity rate and decrease in the drug deaths.

So there's a lot-- but there's again, the north central region is making progress.

Your per capita increase, your per capita income is increased.

You have fewer, fewer adults that have less than a high school diploma and you have significantly fewer residents who are living in poverty.

So there is--there is progress that the north central region is making.

And kudos to everyone in your community.

I mean, everyone has a role to play.

So there's a lot--there's--there's a lot of positive.

And even where it's declining, you're not you're not declining at a huge rate.

With--with one exception, I'll stop and turn it back over, as you mentioned, talent before.

The region itself continues to lose population, so it'll be--it'll be important to the Ready Grants program--Ready Grant Program comes online to really identify opportunities and strengths in the region and invest in those strengths.

And quite frankly, market, you reach.

I mentioned at the top, I'd love the opportunity to come up to South Bend.

I love South Bend.

There's a lot--a lot to sell.

And not just South Bend, of course, but the region itself is phenomenal and with--with the infrastructure and making it easier to get to South Bend.

I think there's there's a huge opportunity for significant growth in your region.

And we appreciate the chance to hear from you today and get a little update in our last few seconds here.

Remind folks that want to find out more about Vision 2025 and and the regional scorecard.

Where would we send them?

If you visit the Indiana Chamber website and I don't have the exact URL, but just you can just use Google, Google Indiana Chamber Vision 2025 and it'll be the top link.

You'll find not only the Indiana Vision 2025 plan, but you'll find this year's report card summaries of both of those, as well as previous--previous report cards.

Great.

Well, thank you, Adam.

It's always great to have you.

We look forward to having you back next year for another great update.

Jeff, thank you for having me.

That's it for our show today.

Thank you for watching at WNIT or listening to our podcast to watch this episode again of our past episode, you can find Economic Outlook at WNIT.org or find our podcast on most major podcast platforms.

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I'm Jeff Rea.

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