Indiana Fiscal Policy Institute leader steps down after 8 years

John Ketzenberger, president of the Indiana Fiscal Policy Institute, a local think tank that specializes in budget and taxation issues, has stepped down after eight years as president of the group.

Katrina Hall, director of public policy at the Indiana Farm Bureau and incoming chairwoman of the IFPI's board, said board members would establish a search committee immediately to begin looking for Ketzenberger’s replacement.

John Ketzenberger

“That should be done in very short order,” Hall said. "We have every intention of continuing the institute as it has been and will continue to try to give the independent, nonpartisan research to the public policy debate we’ve been doing for 30 years.”

The IFPI had been shedding donors and losing money when Ketzenberger arrived in 2009.

Hall said Ketzenberger “came to the institute at a time when we really needed his leadership and he has certainly raised the profile, which we appreciate.”

In a separate statement, Brent Auberry, chairman of the institute’s board, said “John has been instrumental in rebuilding” the institute.

Ketzenberger, a longtime fixture in the Indianapolis media market, said he “didn’t have an announcement to make” about his next step, but that his next opportunity would be a “chance for me to put everything I’ve done to this point to a new application.”

“The people I respect and want to work with are all here,” Ketzenberger said. “I’ve talked with many of them in the last several weeks and I’m exploring some really interesting possibilities both in public policy and in publishing. I’m very optimistic about our town and I look forward to participating in that as fully as possible.”

Before joining the fiscal policy institute, Ketzenberger was a business columnist for The Indianapolis Star and managing editor of the Indianapolis Business Journal. He's a regular panelist on "Indiana Week in Review" on WFYI-TV Channel 20.