'Pro-Business' Policy Disappoints Outside Sunbelt

Republicans keen to tout the supposed superiority of their preferred economic model often cite booming Sunbelt states like Texas or Tennessee as evidence that it works. They don’t talk as much about less successful red states like Kansas or West Virginia. A look at solid red Indiana and its poor performance shows the limits of conservative economic policies. Absent favorable external factors like warm weather, the conservative approach has failed to generate demo­graphic and economic success in states like Indiana.

The Hoosier state has had a Republican governor since Mitch Daniels was elected in 2004. It has been a Republican “trifecta” state, with GOP majorities in both houses of the legislature, since 2011. When Daniels was elected, Indiana’s per capita disposable income was only 90.5 percent of the U.S. average. The governor’s top priority was raising the state’s lagging incomes; indeed, Daniels said his administration’s “central objective was to raise the disposable income of Hoosiers.” His strategy for achieving this was business-centric, focused on “building the best sandbox for businesses to play in.”

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