Indiana’s business climate has been an advantage for a decade or more — consistently landing the state enviably high in various economic development metrics. But that tide might be turning, and some mayors are concerned about the change.
Gov. Mike Braun brings a different style — and fewer handouts to corporations. He repeatedly attacked the state’s previous goals for focusing only on large companies while failing smaller businesses while on the campaign trail.
Crawfordsville Mayor Todd Barton said that sudden shift is causing companies to back away from the Hoosier state.
“They don’t trust us. They don’t trust the state of Indiana,” he told a panel of lobbyists and public relations experts last month. “There’s a loss of sense of direction. And I’m not going to say I totally was always on board with the direction before, but we had a direction, right? And sometimes it was a little confusing, but at least we had a sense of direction.”
Barton said on recent trips with site selectors he has seen a decided shift against bringing investment and job growth to Indiana.
“For years, we’d go to those meetings and they were like, ‘Oh, you’re from Indiana. You guys are rock stars…we’ll put projects in Indiana every single day.’
“This year, I’ve been on three different trips, and every single trip, all we heard was, ‘Eh, we don’t know.’ We do not have — to the outside world — a clear economic development policy in the state of Indiana right now. Period. “
And it’s not just anecdotal.
In 2024, Area Development — a national publication dedicated to site selection and economic development — ranked the top states for doing business and Indiana was fifth. The state especially excelled in the key categories of overall cost, access to qualified labor, business incentive programs, logistics and infrastructure.
Compare that same ranking for 2025. Indiana dropped to 12th for top states to do business.
And here is how Indiana fared in key categories:
- Overall cost – 1st to 5th
- Access to qualified labor – 4th to 6th
- Availability of sites – 4th to not ranked
- Business incentive programs – 3rd to not ranked
- Logistics and infrastructure – 3rd to 7th
The Indiana Economic Development Corporation has had some organizational changes in the last nine months. Its executive director left in September after being hired in January. Braun replaced the entire board in June, and the quasi-governmental agency has been part of a forensic spending audit.
Lawmakers also mandated the hiring of a second leader, and that still hasn’t happened five months later.
“Gov. Braun’s economic development strategy is to grow jobs and increase wages. He is prioritizing regional input and leadership from around the state, which is a shift away from the central Indiana-focused approach of recent years,” said Commerce Secretary David Adams. “This strategy is already working, as the most recent numbers show, with incentivized jobs paying on average $8,000 more per year and costing only a third of what they did a year ago.”
Braun has urged his administration to focus less on large employers in central Indiana, instead looking at growth opportunities for communities around the state. A large swath of counties also have resisted energy-related developments such as wind, solar and data centers, which could be impacting rankings.
Last week, the governor highlighted that year-over-year, the average wage of jobs incentivized by the IEDC to come to Indiana has increased from $37 to $41, a 10% increase. The average cost per incentivized job decreased from $55,000 per job to $16,000 per job.
That’s partly because the state no longer has federal money to spend for incentives. Under former Gov. Eric Holcomb there was hundreds of millions to give out. But the budget for the IEDC has dropped 60% — meaning less money to spread around.
The agency also noted that a recent CNBC ranking saw Indiana jump from 11th to 9th in business climate.
From an outside perspective, I can say that the IEDC was a free-wheeling, secretive entity that had entirely too much leash. And I appreciate that Braun is taking initiative and getting it under control.
Noblesville Mayor Chris Jensen said on the same panel with Barton that there are two things business leaders ask about most: health care and utility costs — both things lawmakers have wrestled to get under control.
Braun has recently targeted high energy costs in the state, appointing a new official to represent ratepayers and urging state regulators to think less about utility shareholders and more about Hoosiers paying the bill. His administration pushed certain health priorities over the finish line during the legislative session, but some had to be scaled back to get votes.
But Jensen also acknowledged that part of the problem is a changing of the guard since Braun took over in January.
“I think this vision of economic development starts at the very top, whether it be a mayor, whether it be a governor. And I think what we need to do right now is get out of our own way and go tell our story — and boldly tell our story. Not just in Indiana, but around the country and around the world. And have a clear message and a clear messenger,” Jensen said.
“I think it starts at the very top. We have to be visionary, we have to be bold, we have to be excited. We have to be transformational, and we have to get out of our own way.”