“We need the IEDC,” said State Senator Spencer Deery (R - West Lafayette). But, he adds, “If we are not able to restore the public’s trust in IEDC eventually the lawmakers who were not facilitating a growth in trust are going to be sent home.” This distrust Sen. Deery cites is why he said reform of the Indiana Economic Development Corporation is now necessary. Deery tells FOX59 he has drafted a bill that would provide state lawmakers greater oversight of the agency which was easily the most visible in the administration of Governor Eric Holcomb. The IEDC has aggressively gone after businesses to come to Indiana or grow existing business in the state. Offering an assortment of grants, training funds, loans and tax breaks has traveled abroad extensively to recruit foreign investment. It has lured tens of billions of dollars in promised investment in Indiana. State law gives the agency wide latitude to keep secret many of the details in the deals that it makes. It has also operated in ways that raised the ire of Hoosiers. The LEAP District is an example. The agency, foreseeing a need for construction-ready locations in the state, started snapping up 9,000+ acres of Boone County farmland. The procurement of property was not initially disclosed to local government officials. At the same time, anticipating a need for water for the businesses that would call LEAP home, the IEDC began exploring a pipeline that would tap into aquafers beneath the Wabash River in Tippecanoe County. Deery says he learned about the pipeline proposal from local news reports, not directly from the IEDC. This has fractured trust with residents of both counties, but Sen. Deery said it is a wider problem, “As I speak with people around the state, this is an issue that comes up over and over again.” Deery’s reform bill would create an Ombudsman position within the State Board of Accounts. The Ombudsman would function as additional oversight and a resource for state lawmakers. “We need somebody who has full access to the board meetings, to the confidential material. “If I find something as a member of the general assembly that is very alarming to me… I can go to somebody and say, ‘Why was I not told of this? It’s your job to be in that room and make sure I’m aware of something that this concerning,’“ explained Deery. An additional bill Deery intends to submit addresses intrastate water pipelines. The legislation would place a two-year moratorium on construction and planning of a pipeline while a 13-member task force put together recommendations for a uniform statewide water policy. Deery submitted a similar bill on underground water extractions in the 2024 session. The bill did not make it out of committee. A spokesperson for the IEDC declined to comment for this story. What remains unclear is whether Deery’s fellow Republicans in the General Assembly will embrace IEDC reform. The GOP super-majorities in recent years have been dependable “yes” votes on a host of IEDC requests for funding. On that Deery shared, “I believe there’s strong appetite to reform IEDC, to look at water policy issues. These issues have saturated the public and not just in my part of the state.” The General Assembly’s 2025 legislative session begins January 8th.