With a steadily growing number of working Hoosier families unable to make ends meet, it’s past time for Indiana’s elected officials (and those wanting to become elected officials) to bridge the gaps created by short-sighted policy choices and costs that continue to increase faster than incomes.
Headlines about $5/gallon gas and housing that is out of reach call out critically real challenges to Hoosier family budgets. But Indiana’s affordability crisis isn’t just about current prices; it’s about stagnant Hoosier incomes that are being left behind by those of our neighbors.
Indiana’s per capita personal income of $66,292 is 41st in the U.S. and dead last in the Midwest. While poverty has remained relatively flat in Indiana since 2010, the number of ALICE (Asset-Limited, Income Constrained, Employed) Hoosiers unable to afford basic expenses has increased by 14%, with nearly four in 10 households in ALICE status. So, while the proportion of ‘poor’ Hoosiers has stayed about the same over the past decade and a half, the number of Hoosiers in hardship keeps climbing…