By Andy Ober
Assistant Managing Editor, Inside Indiana Business

INDIANAPOLIS — The Indiana Economic Development Corporation says it will continue to support every proposal submitted for Regional Cities funding.

Vice President for Policy and Strategic Initiatives Eric Shields says the organization is working on funding contracts with Southwest, North Central and Northeast Indiana, which are to each receive $42 million. He says the IEDC will help the remaining regions connect with community foundations and private sector partners to work on advancing their plans.

Shields says the IEDC is committed to working with any region that wants to embrace collaboration. He says the purpose of the Regional Cities Initiative was to encourage regions to develop and executive plans to increase quality-of-life and population, regardless of whether they were selected for state matching funds. The organization expects the plans that were not chosen for matching funds to move forward, although the timing or scope of the projects might change.

The initiative is funded by a state tax amnesty program, which recently concluded and brought in more money than expected. That allowed the IEDC to select three regions, rather than two. Seven regions submitted proposals, representing more than 400 projects and $4 billion in funding.

The regions chosen for state matching funds are:

Southwest Indiana (see the proposal by clicking here)
Northeast Indiana (see the proposal by clicking here)
North Central Indiana (see the proposal by clicking here)

The other regions, which the IEDC says it will continue to support, are:

East Central Indiana (see the proposal by clicking here)
Central Indiana (see the proposal by clicking here)
Northwest Indiana (see the proposal by clicking here)
West Central Indiana (see the proposal by clicking here)

Source: Inside Indiana Business