Andrew Smith
By ANDREW SMITH
Every time I drive a couple miles north of my home in the southwestern part of Hancock County, it seems another new industrial building is under construction.
While many lament this and wish for all land to remain exactly as it was 50 years ago, that’s not possible. Progress is inevitable, and progress is usually a net benefit to our community. The location close to I-70, Indianapolis and two interchanges at Mt. Comfort Road and State Road 9 providing easy access. Not only that, but land adjoining the interstate is not as desirable for residential purposes, and so its most valuable use appears to be light industrial.
But that’s half the story.
If each warehouse, spec building and distribution center were opening in Hancock County on its own, there is no problem. Within reason, landowners should be able to do what they choose with their land and find the highest-value use, whatever that use may be.
But the problem comes in that nearly every one comes with an “economic development package” attached – a raft of incentives from the county government, often including tax abatements, to incentivize those firms to locate here. Not only that, but when those firms do eventually have to pay taxes when the abatements run out, they’re frequently covered by TIF districts, diverting any monies generated from schools, police and fire to other uses as deemed by the county.
We, as taxpayers, are on the hook for road improvements in the area to accommodate increased truck traffic. We’re on the hook for additional property taxes to pay for our schools and public services to cover the abatments and TIF diversions. And what do we get out of it?
The local elected officials who dole out these packages like candy tout the addition of “jobs,” but jobs for whom? One firm was looking at running a bus line to the east side of Indianapolis to transport its workers to the firm. The pay in warehouse jobs, while in line with the market, is far too low for many workers to be able to afford housing in McCordsville, Fortville and New Palestine, where intense housing demand has forced prices up.
Since a sizable number of workers don’t live in the county and the firms aren’t – at least for the near future – contributing to the area’s tax base, why are the county’s taxpayers subsidizing the proliferation of warehouses through abatements, TIFs and “economic development packages?” It makes no sense. Our taxpayers are essentially subsidizing jobs for Marion County workers, while Hancock County residents drive the other way to more lucrative jobs in Indy.
Part of the reason is we, as a society, tend to fetishize manufacturing and factory-type firms locating in our communities as job centers, but look down upon the other types of work – schools, doctor’s offices, restaurants and retail – that make a community tick. Those tend to be more likely to be staffed by local residents, too.
One benefit would be to bring in more restaurants and retail to the Mt. Comfort Road corridor to serve those workers and our growing number of residents, but that development has lagged the warehouse development, in part because the county is incentivizing factory-style development and not local developments.
There is nothing wrong with factories and warehouses, as long as they are net contributors to the community. But if they want to take advantage of Hancock County’s excellent location, they need to pay their own way, including paying for road improvements to handle the additional truck traffic they generate.
There is also nothing wrong with embracing being a bedroom community. A sense of community can come through prioritizing residential development and focusing the commercial development on the restaurants, retail and other amenities that make our communities great places to live. Those things will happen naturally, organically, because market forces, housing starts and exploding school enrollments have shown there is a high demand to live in the communities along the Mt. Comfort corridor.
Whether commercial, residential or industrial, let growth happen naturally. It will happen, and in a way that benefits both the landowner and the community at large. But don’t force it to happen. And please stop subsidizing industrial growth on the backs of taxpayers who are bearing all of the costs and few of the benefits of it. End the practice of giving out tax abatements and economic development packages for industrial projects.
Andrew Smith is an economics instructor at New Palestine High School and Vincennes University and the Vice Chairperson of the Libertarian Party of Hancock County.
