Editor's note
With air safety once again in the news, Who Gets What? turns to experienced civilian pilot Hunter Heath for a deeper understanding of the air traffic control system. Find this podcast at mortonjohn.libsym.com.
There is political talk, which may not be related to reality, of transforming the Indiana Economic Development Corporation (IEDC) into a more responsible, transparent, locally focused agency. That would mean leaving behind the Great Leap concept which has already made its mark on Boone County (Lebanon).

Similarly, whatever has been posing as the economic development agency for Indianapolis is being reeled in. This action is described as an effort to bring that woeful truant back home to the Mayor’s office. The outcome here, we are told, is to provide us with an agency that is more responsive, responsible, and transparent.

How both these organs of government became unresponsive, unreliable, and opaque has not been detailed. No one has come forward with the inside story, the lowdown, the skinny, the poop, if you will. How do such important functions get loose from the sworn deputies of our Governor or the Mayor of our largest city.

It could be that the person(s) responsible for giving authority and funding to such agencies are neither rigorous nor vigorous in their oversight on behalf of the public. But then, maybe the public has little interest in economic development.

Who really supports the development of our economy? Are these agencies, which are to be found in almost every county or city in most states, actually engaged in developing the economy or do they have other goals?

Once upon a time, the Indiana Area Development Council (the IADC) was the means whereby the private sector provided funds for the Governor or his Lieutenant to travel with an entourage of corporate heavyweights to places (domestic and foreign) where “prospects” might be engaged to talk about locating facilities in Indiana.

These trips might, on occasion, involve the consumption of alcohol, a no-no for our righteous civic leadership. Expenditures for such wicked refreshment could not be borne by government accounts and the private sector IADC was there to absorb the charges.

The IADC was limited to 40 members, primarily senior (older) executives who represented the railroads, the utilities, the banks, a few commercial real estate firms, and other enterprises with a landed interest in Indiana. Most of these men were closing in on retirement and had proven to upper management they were no longer of significance.

[Transparency requires I admit to ex officio membership in the IADC. My university affiliation suggested I could provide data, but no one could vouch for my significance. My time with the IADC included only one trip, introducing me to Shelbyville.]

Bob Orr and John Mutz, in the early 1980s, envisioned a more cerebral role for an IEDC, with a professional staff, but that entity devolved over time into the huckster IEDC we have come to know in this century.

Where will our Governor and the Mayors (if they are involved) take us in raiding the state (and local) treasuries in our quest to have more jobs, bigger users of our water and land? Maybe the Shadow knows? I don’t, do they?

And what is economic development anyway?
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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