Indiana’s lieutenant governor expects a big impact from the state’s new regional development initiative. Suzanne Crouch says the Regional Economic Acceleration and Development Initiative (READI) will provide up to $50 million each to up to 10 regions.
“And each of those, in turn, are going to attract anywhere from 500 to a billion dollars of investment,” Crouch said during the Northwest Indiana Forum’s legislative wrap-up Thursday. “Can you imagine what that’s going to do to Indiana and to our communities, to have that kind of infrastructure and those kinds of transformational projects going on all at the same time? It’s going to be phenomenal, and it’s going to set us apart from other states.”
The READI program is similar to the Regional Cities Initiative from five years ago, but Crouch said it only awarded $42 million to three regions. One of those included Marshall County.
Between Regional Cities and READI, Indiana encouraged regional development through the Stellar Communities Program. Marshall County Crossroads got a Stellar designation in 2019. Constellation of Starke was working on reapplying last year, when the program was suspended due to COVID-19.
Crouch says the Stellar program remains on hold, for now, “But you can look for that to come back in the future.”
In the meantime, Crouch says the Indiana Office of Community and Rural Affairs plans to partner with the state’s universities to help small communities figure out the best way to spend their American Rescue Plan money.
