Regional Cities Winners to be Named

The state says the focus of the initiative is job and talent attraction and retention.

The winners of the Indiana Regional Cities Initiative will be revealed Tuesday by Governor Mike Pence. The announcement will mark the culmination of many months of preparation and proposals by seven regions competing for a part of the two-year, $84 million initiative.

Regional cities is designed to help improve quality-of-life in regions throughout the state by boosting efforts geared toward marketing the counties, cities and towns together and on a global scale. It’s being funded through a state tax amnesty program that recently closed and raised more than originally targeted.

The Indiana Economic Development Corp. has led the initiative and its Indiana Regional Cities Strategic Review Committee will gather for a final public meeting before offering their recommendations to the IEDC board for approval.

In October, representatives from central, east central, northern, northeast, northwest, southwest and west central Indiana made their presentations to the committee.

The regional development corporations set up as a result of the initiative have proposed more than 400 projects totaling $3.8 billion in funding.