Where Hoosiers Live to Make More Money

Per capita personal income is not created equally across all 92 Indiana counties. It never has been, but a look at the income impacts of the recession provides some interesting disparities.

The credit for the analysis goes to Rachel Justis of the Indiana Business Research Center at the Indiana University Kelley School of Business. Check out her work here.

When per capita income ranges from nearly $49,000 in Boone County to less than $22,000 in LaGrange County, it’s a subject worthy of a closer look. A map provides information for all counties and charts detail those that experienced the greatest change and show a dramatic drop in counties that equal the U.S. per capita figure.

Coburn Slices Wasteful Spending in 2008 Report

No matter your political leanings, you’ll likely find this report by U.S. Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, 2008: Worst Waste of the Year, to be worth perusing. He basically takes government to task for what he perceives to be a national barrage of pork. Many of these programs are laughable, while some might be defendable depending upon your perspective.

Here’s an example:

First Tee Program – South Carolina ($3 million)

Kids around the nation will be invited to learn and appreciate the game of golf through a $3 million grant from the Pentagon to First Tee. First Tee is a non‐profit organization that was founded to bring underprivileged youth off the streets and onto the golf course. When one member of Congress responsible for arranging the grant was asked what childhood golf had to do with the military, he responded that golf “helps you make generals and colonels.”

I remember hearing about this one when it earned Rep. James Clyburn (South Carolina) a nomination for the Citizens Against Government Waste’s Porker of the Year Award. I must agree that there are some holes in the logic. For starters, I played quite a bit of golf as a youngster (in the converted cornfields of Boone County, not fancy golf with sand traps and such), and I’m hardly qualified to lead an army of ants, let alone becoming a general or colonel. Nor did it teach me about decorum as I was a known club-thrower, and I learned little about finishing what I start as I became a master of the four-foot gimme.

Worst of all, I never actually became good at golf, which led to a poor self image (frowny face).

Hat tip to Chamber staffer Chase Downham for passing the report along.

Boone County Bracing for Future, Growth

Frank Sinatra’s hit song “It Was a Very Good Year” comes to mind when considering Boone County’s many successful business ventures in 2007 (with the good news continuing early in 2008). Several major announcements outlined plans for economic growth in the form of new jobs and a 1,700-acre mixed use development community in Whitestown called Anson.

The idea behind Anson: it’s a place where people can “work, shop and play.” Its industrial side will house businesses such as Medco Health Solutions, whose automated prescription distribution center will create approximately 1,300 jobs. Both Duke Realty and Browning Investments are major players in the Anson project.

Other developments? Lebanon became the new U.S. headquarters for a prominent power tool manufacturer. Also, a global publisher is expanding its distribution center in the Lebanon Business Park. Learn more about these developments and others that made 2007 “a very good year” for Boone County in the current issue of BizVoice magazine.