The speech in recent days by Lilly CEO David Ricks before the Economic Club of Indiana raised more than a few eyebrows.  According to the story filed by WISH-TV reporters Richard Essex, Garrett Bergquist, Katiera Winfrey and Mary Gillis, Indiana is falling behind the rest of the nation in key areas.

“Our education attainment in the state is not good. The ability to reskill the workforce, I think, could improve. Health, life and inclusion, overall, I think, conditions rank poorly nationally in our state. And also workforce preparedness, also related to reskilling, is a liability for us,” Ricks said, based in the WISH-TV reporting.  “Hoosiers today have relatively low performance on national metrics of education.”

I searched my memory.  Where have I heard a message similar to Mr. Ricks’ comments?  Then it dawned on me.  It was May, 2019, and it was Fishers Mayor Scott Fadness in his State of the City address.

Let’s just say the mayor did his homework preparing for that speech.  He cited data showing Indiana is in the bottom ten among the 50 states in public health, quality of life, higher education, environmental health and mental health.  Fadness also cited another piece of data – as of May, 2019, Indiana had an 11% increase in mental health distress cases (that was before we even knew the term COVID Pandemic).

He also cited statistics comparing us with other metropolitan areas in our general geographic area and found the Indianapolis metro area has the lowest percentage of population centers with a college degree.

I do not believe Mayor Fadness was bad-mouthing Indiana or the Indy metro area.  He was making the case that work needs to be done.  He has always been aggressive seeking economic development in our city.  He hears all about the data cited in Mr. Ricks speech and his 2019 address when negotiating with private firms to locate here.

Indiana has been known as a generally low-tax low-services state.  But in my recent conversations with people in the private sector specializing in how companies choose locations for their work force, there is much more than low taxes and loose regulations to consider.

Lilly is headquartered in Indianapolis but much of its recent expansion has been in states outside Indiana.  The CEO was sending a message to the movers and shakers of our state – time is running out to fix these problems.  Many of these issues have been lingering for years with little or no action from our elected officials.

My understanding is that Fishers is working on a number of announcements in the coming months.  I have no idea what will be announced, but economic development is likely the center of the activity.

If Fishers can continue to compete with other states and metro areas, all the data cited in those speeches by David Ricks and Scott Fadness puts us at a distinct disadvantage on the national and world stage.  It is a compliment to Scott Fadness and his economic development team that Fishers continues to attract employers.

All I ask is that we listen to what these important decision makers are saying.  We are in a competitive world and we must compete in all important areas if we want economic growth.