Editor's note
Larry Wallman returns to assess the recent location of 21st Century electronics in Indiana. He pulls no punches. Listen to him on the Who Gets What? podcast at mortonjohn.libsyn.com
Ah, there was good news recently. I say recently because it may no longer be the case given the rapidity with which ideas of all sorts, creative and idiotic, float in and out of the Indiana General Assembly.

A bill (HB 1008 as amended) imagines Indiana counties joining together, by a vote of the people, to consider “the possibility of a county: 1. separating from the State of Indiana to form a new state; [or] 2. separating from the State of Indiana to join another state.”

And you thought only President Trump was capable of disruptive initiatives. Here we have three disruptive thoughts borne out of the original HB 1008, which itself was a near-revolutionary act. That bill would have established the Indiana-Illinois boundary adjustment commission “to discuss and recommend whether it is advisable to adjust the boundaries between the two states.”

Adjust boundaries? Don’t the existing state boundaries predate the villainy of Eve and the Snake? The unamended bill has no public participation in the process. It is pure Hoosier.

Recommendations are made to the Governor by the commission members who are appointed by the self-same Governor. Even if accepted by that potentate, nothing will be done prior to approval by the Indiana and Illinois legislatures and the U.S. Congress.

But let’s not get hung up in the process and instead consider the larger question: Which of Illinois’ 102 counties do we desire to add to our land area? My guess would be Cook and Will Counties, but I’m a dreamer not a legislator.

Let’s pretend that we were interested in having control of the Wabash River which separates Indiana from Illinois from south of Terre Haute (Vigo County) down to the Ohio River.

Five Illinois counties would become part of Indiana (Clark, Crawford, Lawrence, Wabash and White). There’s the first problem. All those names are currently used by Indiana counties. Which will give up their current names, the rebellious of Illinois or the acquisitive of Indiana?

What would we gain? Five counties with 72,500 persons. Each of these five Illinois counties has lost population in the past ten years. Together their populations have declined by 7.7%.

In this respect they match up well with our five counties that border Illinois across the Wabash River. These are Vigo, Sullivan, Knox, Gibson and Posey, each of which have also lost population in the past 10 years. As a group, the five Indiana counties lost 2.3% of their populations.

In terms of total personal income, the Illinois-5 saw a growth of 30% over ten years, while Indiana’s ten counties had a 42% increase. The resultant growth in per capita personal income for the Indiana-5 was 45% compared to 41% in the five counties to the west.

In sum, the Illinois-5 are neither numerous nor wealthy enough for us to get excited about adding them to our illustrious 92 counties. We would have to grab off a richer, more populous set of counties before accepting our neighbors’ poor cast-offs.
Morton J. Marcus is an economist formerly with the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University. His column appears in Indiana newspapers, and his views can be followed his podcast.

© 2025 Morton J. Marcus

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