Back from a three-day trip to Canada that included meetings with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Gov. Eric Holcomb told IBJ he's confident Indiana's strong trade relationship with the country is poised to grow despite uncertainty about the future of trade between Canada and the U.S.
The move comes one day after Gov. Eric Holcomb ordered lawmakers to return to the Statehouse in May for a special session after Republican supermajorities failed to come to consensus on key bills before a March 14 deadline.
Holcomb and his top economic development official, Commerce Secretary Jim Schellinger, traveled to 11 countries and 31 cities in 2017.
The mayor also told IBJ that the city is “prepared to look at anything and everything” that would help it secure Amazon’s planned second U.S. headquarters—as long as any action is fiscally prudent.
Gov. Eric Holcomb’s office says Indiana will be the second state to adopt The Last Mile coding program, which seeks to give inmates in-demand job skills and keep them out of the corrections system.
In his State of the State address, the governor offered specific targets for returning college dropouts to school, helping inmates earn work certificates and pushing more companies to offer training programs.
Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb in his Tuesday evening speech plans to lay out benchmark goals in key priority areas—especially in workforce development.
James Atterholt, appointed chairman of the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission in February, will step down next month, saying his wife has been offered a job transfer to Florida.
Mary Beth Bonaventura, who's stepping down after five years as director of the Department of Child Services, warned in her resignation letter to Gov. Eric Holcomb that a continuation of his administration's policies will "all but ensure children will die."
Since taking office nearly a year ago, Holcomb has ducked substantive policy questions about everything from abortion and gun rights legislation, to federal health care policy or whether Indiana convenience stores should be able to sell cold beer.
The governor called the performance of one of the biggest online schools, Indiana Virtual, “unsatisfactory.” It has received more than $20 million in state funding while graduating about 61 students.
Lawmakers returning to the Statehouse in January for their 2018 session will face questions about alcohol, autonomous vehicles, hate crimes and more.
Democrats in Indiana wield little to no influence at the Statehouse but see recent electoral victories for Democrats in Virginia, Oklahoma and Georgia statehouses as welcoming signs ahead of the 2018 midterm election.
Gov. Eric Holcomb said there would be “no more stove-pipe approach,” referring to criticisms by some legislative leaders that the workforce development system is convoluted and divided into isolated silos.
The governor helped persuade India-based outsourcing firm Infosys to establish offices in Indianapolis, got skeptical GOP lawmakers to fund a direct flight between Indianapolis and Paris, and signed an agreement to deepen economic ties with Japan.
Announced Monday, the state training grant program would provide up to $2,500 per employee to companies that hire, train and retain workers for at least six months.
Blair Milo joins an administration that is beginning to see the challenges of the state’s near-record-low unemployment rate. A growing group of business leaders say they’re coming up short as they seek out more skilled workers to fill available jobs.
Already, ports in Jeffersonville and Mount Vernon move goods to and from Indiana along the Ohio, downstream to the Mississippi River and out to the Gulf of Mexico.
Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb's administration entered a one-year contract last month with Shelbyville firm McNeely Stephenson to handle the "unusually high" number of requests.
Work to improve State Road 37 between Bloomington and Martinsville to interstate standards began in 2014 and was originally slated for completion by the end of 2016. But multiple delays and financing problems have raised concerns about the private developer.
