Perhaps you’ve head this before: There are no GM automobile factories in Anderson anymore.
Most of us have come to accept this reality and how it impacts a changing local economy. We have come to recognize that Anderson is making a tough transition from the past into the future.
But history continues to roam through economic studies.
We tend to tire of hearing it over and over again.
The latest “heard-it-before” analysis was released recently by the Indiana University Public Policy Institute.
Among Indiana’s 92 counties, Madison County rated in the bottom 30 for obesity, life expectancy and median household income, among other variables.
In essence, the report found that Madison County, which is considered an urban county by the researcher, had all the economic vitality of a rural area.
The researcher noted that rural areas are considered the most economically challenged due to their distance from metropolitan hubs. Madison County was the only non-rural county to be considered in the most challenged category.
The researcher based his analysis on that fact that Madison County has struggled to recover from the loss of the automotive industry. This county, he said, needed to work with others in a regional effort to spur recovery.
Of course, most of this was known to local economic development leaders.
Even though a healthy percentage of Madison County is rural, likening the county’s future vitality to that of undeveloped farmland miles from urban activity is disheartening.
Local leaders have been working with other counties to develop the economy. More can always be done, and Anderson residents look toward the incoming administration of mayor-elect Thomas Broderick to further bolster job growth.
If he can’t, then the rural comparisons may linger.
Additionally, the IU researcher is correct.
Madison County has not recovered fully from the GM loss. It seems the county has waited for Indianapolis to spread further northeast as if jobs will roll in when housing does.
The research on Indiana’s economy is typically accurate. The results and solutions affecting Madison County also seem to be the same.
Unfortunately, this county needs to hear these reports in hopes of renewing efforts to bring jobs here.
Elected and economic leaders need to study each of these reports, absorb the implications and act with revitalized approaches.
They should make every to bring us a newer economic history that doesn’t always blame the automotive past for current conditions.