Editorial: Holcomb should put muscle behind regional recovery plan

Gov. Eric Holcomb had already revealed much of his agenda well before he delivered his State of the State Address in a pre-recorded broadcast on Tuesday.

On his list of priorities are boosts in funding for K-12 schools and higher education, COVID-19 liability protection for businesses, and a law that requires businesses to provide reasonable accommodations for pregnant workers.

But Holcomb, who is starting his second term, saved one surprise proposal for his speech—a regional investment program that would provide grants to regional initiatives focused on quality of place, workforce development and other programs.

If you think that sounds familiar, like something Indiana might have tried before, you’d be right. Holcomb’s proposed Next Level Regional Recovery program appears at first glance to be strikingly similar to the Regional Cities Initiative then-Gov. Mike Pence won approval for in 2015.

That $126 million program was designed to encourage collaboration within regions and spur economic growth. Seven regions applied for grants, but the Legislature provided only enough money to award funding to three proposals. With matching grants and other spending, those regions—which were anchored by Fort Wayne, South Bend and Evansville—invested some $1.2 billion into various projects and programs.

But after that initial round of funding—which came from a tax amnesty program that let delinquent taxpayers pony up without penalty—lawmakers let the initiative drop.

Now, it seems, Holcomb wants to bring it back with a new name and new mission: Help Indiana recover from the pandemic. We support that goal and, while we had some skepticism at times about the Regional Cities Initiative, we’re impressed with the creativity, the focus on regionalism and the total amount of investment that accompanied it.

So, kudos to Holcomb for seeking to restart the effort.

But we’d like to see the governor be more specific about his proposal. He didn’t say, for example, how much money he wants to put behind it. And his office said the program would be created only if “the state’s financial position remains strong.”

We get it. Tax receipts were hit hard by the pandemic, and it’s impressive the Holcomb administration has managed the budget in a way that allows increases in spending to happen at all.

And certainly, the state can’t spend millions of dollars on a program if it doesn’t have the money. But, according to the state’s projections, Holcomb’s $32.5 billion, two-year budget plan would leave the state with $2.3 billion in the bank.

So if the Next Level Regional Recovery is a good idea, a way to move Indiana past the pandemic, the governor should signal its importance by putting a dollar figure on the program and making it a line item in his proposed budget.

We don’t want to see Holcomb wait until the end of the session—after lawmakers have put their own priorities in the budget—to try to win support for the program. That lets lawmakers too easily off the hook if they don’t fund it. If Holcomb thinks the program is a priority, he should make that clear right now.•

__________

To comment, write to ibjedit@ibj.com.