Indiana Chamber Has a New Economic Playbook. Hoosier Businesses Should Watch the Scoreboard.

The state's dominant business organization is narrowing its Prosperity 2035 agenda, expanding small-business health coverage and pushing workforce initiatives. The plans sound good. The harder question is whether they will actually make Indiana more competitive.

INDIANAPOLIS — August 25, 2026 | Hoosier Enquirer

Indiana's business establishment has produced no shortage of economic-development plans over the years. The latest version comes from the Indiana Chamber of Commerce, which this summer decided that its Indiana Prosperity 2035 blueprint needed something economic strategies often lack: fewer priorities and a clearer way to tell whether any of them are actually working.

The Chamber's July update cuts the original 31 goals to 18 while retaining six strategic pillars. Each priority is now supposed to carry a defined metric and data source, an acknowledgment of an uncomfortable truth about long-range economic planning: It is easy to announce a vision for 2035 when 2035 is far enough away that nobody can yet grade the results. (Indiana Chamber of Commerce)

That doesn't mean the Chamber's effort is empty. Quite the opposite. Indiana faces legitimate competitive pressures involving workers, healthcare, childcare, energy, housing, technology and the cost of doing business. But the Chamber is simultaneously an advocate, policy player, membership organization and provider of business services. Hoosier employers should therefore welcome the ideas while keeping one eye firmly on the scoreboard.

From 31 Goals to 18: A Strategy or an Admission?

The revised Indiana Prosperity 2035 plan is more disciplined than its predecessor. The Chamber says it has narrowed 31 goals to 18 priority goals, strengthened benchmarks and retained six pillars designed to address the state's long-term economic competitiveness. President and CEO Vanessa Green Sinders is also taking the updated plan around Indiana through the organization's "Partners IN Prosperity" effort, seeking business and community participation. (Indiana Chamber of Commerce)

There is nothing inherently suspicious about reducing the number of goals. In fact, 31 priorities sounds suspiciously like having no priorities at all. The better question is why these 18 made the cut, who ultimately determines success and what happens when a favored policy fails to produce the promised result.

That's where the new metrics matter.

Indiana should insist that Prosperity 2035 become a genuine report card rather than another glossy economic-development document. If workforce participation improves, show it. If Indiana retains more college graduates, demonstrate it. If entrepreneurship expands, measure new firms and survival rates. If infrastructure and electricity become more competitive, show employers the price and reliability data. If healthcare becomes more affordable, premiums should eventually tell the story.

And if Indiana falls behind neighboring states, the Chamber should say that too.

The Chamber is hardly a disinterested observer. It advocates legislation, scores lawmakers and works aggressively to shape public policy. In 2025, for example, it graded legislators using 12 policies covering childcare, economic development, education, energy, healthcare, taxation and road funding. The Chamber explicitly linked those votes to Indiana Prosperity 2035. (Indiana Chamber of Commerce)

That's its right as a business advocacy organization. But it also means the Chamber isn't merely measuring Indiana's economy. It is attempting to influence the policies that shape it.

That distinction deserves to remain clear.

ChamberCare Sounds Attractive. Read the Fine Print.

The Chamber's most immediately interesting initiative for small employers may have nothing to do with a 2035 economic forecast.

It is health insurance.

In July, the Indiana Chamber and Indy Chamber announced a significant expansion of ChamberCare, a multiple employer welfare arrangement, or MEWA, designed for qualifying employers with two to 50 workers. Thirty-five local chambers had joined the new partner network at the time of the announcement. (Indiana Chamber of Commerce)

The proposition is easy to understand. A company employing 12 people doesn't possess the insurance-buying power of a corporation employing 12,000. Pool enough small employers together and theoretically they can gain some of the advantages of scale.

The eye-catching number is 40%.

The Chamber says participating businesses may reduce health-benefit costs by as much as 40%, depending upon eligibility and plan selection. That "may" deserves approximately the same attention as the "40%." It isn't a promise that the neighborhood machine shop, restaurant supplier or accounting firm is about to cut its insurance bill almost in half. (Indiana Chamber of Commerce)

Still, the concept deserves serious consideration because healthcare expenses are becoming a competitiveness issue for smaller companies. Even a 10% or 15% reduction can matter when multiplied across employees and years. Money not consumed by insurance premiums can potentially become wages, equipment, hiring or retained capital.

The proper test for ChamberCare therefore isn't the best-case promotional percentage. It is what the typical participating Indiana employer actually saves after several renewal cycles, what employees pay out of pocket and whether the coverage remains competitive.

Those are numbers worth publishing.

ChamberCare Is Becoming More Than an Insurance Pool

The program has also become more sophisticated. SIHO Insurance Services, based in Columbus, Indiana, is the lead plan provider. The 2026 cycle adds Healthee, an AI-powered benefits assistant providing digital identification cards, provider searches, cost comparisons, telemedicine and teletherapy, along with Quantify, a service intended to coordinate certain specialty infusion treatments at alternative sites when appropriate. (Indiana Chamber of Commerce)

That reflects where employee benefits are heading: insurance is increasingly being bundled with technology designed to steer workers toward lower-cost care.

Again, the theory makes sense. The test is execution.

Small-business owners should ask basic questions before celebrating any claimed savings: What happens at renewal? How broad are the networks? What are the deductibles? What happens to prescription costs? What percentage of participating companies actually save money after adjusting for comparable benefits?

A 40% reduction achieved by materially shifting costs to employees wouldn't be the same economic victory as a 40% reduction for substantially equivalent coverage.

The Chamber isn't claiming otherwise. But employers should compare like with like.

Childcare Has Become an Employer Problem

The Chamber's focus on childcare may initially sound like a departure from traditional business lobbying. The economics suggest otherwise.

A Chamber-backed 2024 study estimated that Indiana loses $4.22 billion annually from childcare problems, including about $3.05 billion borne by employers through turnover and absenteeism and $1.17 billion in lost tax revenue. The study also reported that 57% of surveyed parents of young children had missed work or class because of childcare during a three-month period. (Indiana Chamber of Commerce)

Those are extraordinary numbers, though they are estimates rather than entries on Indiana's general ledger and should be treated accordingly.

The underlying problem is nevertheless obvious. A worker who can't find reliable childcare isn't reliably available to an employer. A parent who quits because childcare costs nearly as much as the job pays disappears from the labor force altogether.

That's why the Chamber backed childcare measures during the 2026 General Assembly and described increasing supply, reducing regulatory barriers and encouraging employer participation as economic priorities. (Indiana Chamber of Commerce)

This is one area where ideological labels don't help much. Indiana can debate how much government should subsidize childcare, but businesses still need employees to arrive for work Monday morning.

The market either solves that problem, government intervenes, employers participate—or some combination of all three eventually emerges.

Then There Is Energy — Perhaps the Biggest Question of All

Indiana's traditional economic model was built partly on relatively inexpensive and reliable electricity. That matters enormously to manufacturing, and it becomes even more consequential as the state competes for advanced manufacturing, semiconductor operations and power-hungry data centers.

The Chamber has increasingly put energy among the issues at the center of its advocacy and its long-range prosperity framework. It is also turning attention toward responsible data-center policy as it prepares for future legislative sessions. (Indiana Chamber of Commerce)

Here skepticism is particularly healthy.

Economic-development announcements involving massive electricity users often arrive with impressive numbers for investment and jobs. The public eventually needs to know who pays for the infrastructure required to serve them, whether ordinary ratepayers are protected, whether the promised employment materializes and whether Indiana's grid remains sufficiently reliable for existing manufacturers and households.

"Growth" is not automatically synonymous with prosperity if existing customers subsidize the infrastructure required to produce it.

The Chamber represents businesses that want economic expansion, but many of those same businesses also pay electric bills. That tension could become one of the most interesting tests of its economic agenda.

The Chamber Is More Powerful Than a Networking Organization

It is worth remembering what the Indiana Chamber actually is.

This isn't merely an organization hosting breakfasts where executives exchange business cards. The Chamber says it partners with roughly 25,000 members and investors, and it has a substantial policy operation that attempts to influence legislation involving taxation, labor, healthcare, infrastructure, energy, education and economic development. (Indiana Chamber of Commerce)

It also publicly grades legislators.

That makes the Chamber an important participant in Indiana politics even though it isn't a political party. Its policy preferences can help define what "pro-business" means at the Statehouse, and a poor Chamber score can become politically uncomfortable for a lawmaker representing a business-heavy district.

There is nothing improper about that. Labor organizations advocate for workers.

Environmental groups advocate for environmental policies. Trial lawyers and insurers advocate for their interests. The Chamber advocates for business.

But "business interests" and "public interests" aren't automatically identical, just as the interests of a multinational manufacturer aren't necessarily identical to those of a five-person business in Muncie.

The Chamber's ideas should therefore be evaluated on the merits, not simply stamped pro-business and moved automatically toward passage.

Indiana's 2026 Legislative Wins—and What's Coming Next

The Chamber describes the 2026 General Assembly as productive, citing advances involving childcare, work-based learning, modernization of local government and tax conformity. It has already made clear that tort reform remains unfinished business for 2027 after stakeholders failed to reach agreement during this year's compressed session. (Indiana Chamber of Commerce)

That preview matters

.

The Chamber's summer activity isn't occurring in isolation. It is effectively the bridge between one legislative session and the next. Research papers, business surveys, conferences and Prosperity 2035 benchmarks can ultimately become legislative proposals.

Employers should pay attention before those proposals become bills.

So should taxpayers.

Artificial Intelligence Joins the Agenda

Another revealing development is the Chamber's move into artificial intelligence.

In July, the organization announced a partnership with the Central Indiana Corporate Partnership for a statewide AI roadshow aimed at helping businesses, educators, nonprofits and community leaders understand practical adoption of artificial intelligence. The initiative is connected to Gov. Mike Braun's broader statewide AI push. (Indiana Chamber of Commerce)

That's probably unavoidable.

AI will affect manufacturing, logistics, professional services, healthcare, education and government. Indiana can't simply watch California and Texas develop the technology and assume the economic consequences will stop at the state line.

But the same questions apply here: Does an AI initiative help the typical Indiana employer become more productive, or merely produce another circuit of conferences and consultants?

Indiana businesses don't need to be told that AI is revolutionary.

They need help determining what actually works.

A Chamber That Is Changing Along With Its Members

The organization itself is adapting. Its Indianapolis headquarters now operates on a hybrid schedule, with the physical office closed to the public on Fridays while staff work remotely.

That may seem minor, but it illustrates the larger transformation occurring in the workplace. Even an organization devoted to representing employers is navigating the same questions its members face: How much office space is necessary? Does flexibility improve retention? Does remote work increase efficiency or merely move costs elsewhere?

There isn't one answer for every employer.

A software company can operate differently from a steel mill. A bank can operate differently from a hospital. A construction company cannot build a bridge over Zoom.

Indiana economic policy should remember those distinctions.

The Real Competition Isn't Ohio. It's Complacency.

Indiana has considerable advantages. It sits at the center of major transportation networks, possesses a deep manufacturing culture, has globally respected universities and generally offers housing and operating costs below those of major coastal markets.

But states don't own competitive advantages permanently.

Ohio is competing.

Michigan is competing.

Kentucky is competing.

Tennessee, North Carolina and Texas are competing.

Increasingly, they aren't merely competing for factories. They are competing for engineers, nurses, entrepreneurs, technicians, graduates and families.

That's why the Chamber is right to connect childcare, education, healthcare, infrastructure, energy and quality of place with economic development. A corporation may move because of taxes. A talented 28-year-old engineer deciding where to spend the next 20 years is making a considerably more complicated calculation.

Indiana needs both.

Show Us the Numbers in 2030

The Chamber deserves some credit for simplifying its prosperity plan and attaching measurable benchmarks to it. That's better than issuing 31 aspirations and quietly replacing them with another plan a decade later.

But measurement only matters if somebody is willing to publish disappointing results.

By 2030, Indiana should be able to open Prosperity 2035 and ask some straightforward questions. Are Hoosiers earning more relative to competing states? Are more graduates staying? Are employers finding workers? Are health-benefit costs becoming manageable? Is electricity reliable and competitive? Is entrepreneurship expanding? Has childcare stopped pushing parents out of the labor force?

And regarding ChamberCare, let's see something even simpler: What did participating businesses actually save?

The Indiana Chamber is trying to position itself as an architect of the state's economic future. With 25,000 members and investors, considerable Statehouse influence and a plan stretching toward 2035, it has earned a seat at the table. (Indiana Chamber of Commerce)

Influence, however, should bring scrutiny with it. indiana lacks a media that asks questions.

Indiana doesn't need another economic vision that succeeds because its authors eventually declare that it succeeded. It needs rising incomes, productive businesses, affordable energy, workers who can afford to raise families here and small employers capable of competing without drowning in overhead.

The Chamber has reduced 31 goals to 18. Good. Now Indiana should keep score.