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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowIndiana economic development officials on Wednesday touted a record number of jobs that companies have committed to creating in the state as part of deals to receive tax credits and other incentives.
During a press conference about his 2018 agenda, Gov. Eric Holcomb announced that, so far in 2017, businesses have committed to creating as many as 28,846 jobs in coming years, which is an all-time high since the Indiana Economic Development Corp. was established in 2005.
A big part of the IEDC’s work involves trying to persuade companies to invest in Indiana operations and add jobs in the state, either by relocating here or expanding their current presence. To do that, the agency can offer incentives such as tax credits and training grants that employers can claim once they meet certain agreed-upon investment and job-creation goals—typically over several years.
For example, one of the biggest agreements of 2017 in terms of number of jobs planned was with parcel deliverer UPS, which said it would create up to 578 jobs at a new Plainfield facility by 2023.
Based on the job creation plans and an expected $260 million investment required to establish the hub, the IEDC offered UPS up to $7.5 million in conditional tax credits and $200,00 in training grants.
So far in 2017, the IEDC has secured 270 commitments from businesses to locate and/or grow in Indiana, up from 227 agreements last year. The average hourly rate of the 28,846 planned jobs is $27.38, which also is a record for IEDC and tops the previous high of $25.43 in 2016.
The 270 deals represented an expected $6.68 billion in investment, nearly double the $3.69 billion in investment from commitments made in 2016 and still higher than $4.79 billion in 2015. The record is $8.44 billion in 2006.
According to the IEDC, the value of the incentives offered in the 270 agreements for 2017 worked out to $10,888 per job, or a total of roughly $314 million over coming years. A breakdown of the total value of the tax credits and training grants was not immediately available. An IEDC spokeswoman said that the incentives-to-jobs ratio in 2017 was not a record high.
The state is not finished with inking deals with employers for 2017. Officials decided to reveal the record-breaking job-creation numbers on Wednesday to coincide with Holcomb's press conference about his 2018 agenda.
Ranked by number of jobs planned by the employer, here are the top nine deals so far for 2017:
— Infosys in Indianapolis (up to 2,000 new jobs by the end of 2021)
— UPS in Plainfield (up to 578 new jobs by 2023)
— Axiscades in an undetermined Indiana location (up to 500 new jobs by the end of 2023)
— HMD Trucking in Gary (up to 500 new jobs by 2021)
— BeijingWest Industries in Greenfield (up to 441 new jobs by 2021)
— Forest River in LaGrange (up to 425 new jobs by 2019)
— Toyota Motor Manufacturing of Indiana in Princeton (up to 400 new jobs by the end of 2019)
— Knowledge Services in Fishers (up to 400 new jobs by 2021)
— KAR Auction Services in Carmel (up to 400 jobs)
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