Reality Check: Indiana job numbers don’t add up (WTHR)
Reality Check: Indiana job numbers don't add up
WTHR Special Report
When Mitch Daniels promised Hoosiers more jobs during a heated 2004 election, some voters were understandably skeptical.
After all, when's the last time you heard a candidate for public office – let alone the state's top office – say jobs were not a priority?
But as a newly-elected governor, Daniels quickly showed he meant business.
In February 2005 -- just one month into his administration – Gov. Daniels created the Indiana Economic Development Corporation to attract new business and more jobs to Indiana.
It got immediate results.
Honda, Nestle, WellPoint, and Toyota announced plans to bring the state new factories and thousands of new jobs, and many other companies followed.
IEDC began tallying all the job announcements, and the agency developed an impressive list.
That list, published each year in IEDC's annual reports, is simply titled "Indiana Economic Successes." It includes the name of each company that committed new Indiana jobs through relocation or expansion, and it shows the specific number of jobs promised.
Since its creation, IEDC boasts more than 100,000 new jobs on its success list, and when the agency and the governor talk about job numbers, the "Indiana Economic Successes" list is what they are talking about.
But 13 Investigates discovered many of the state's "economic successes" aren't really successes at all.
They are empty fields and deserted factories where the state claims there are supposed to be thousands of jobs.