Gov. Eric Holcomb comments on spot bonuses across agencies, including the Indiana Economic Development Corporation, at the National FFA conference on Nov. 1. (Whitney Downard/Indiana Capital Chronicle)
INDIANAPOLIS — The Indiana Economic Development Corporation (IEDC) doesn’t have the largest headcount, but the relatively small state agency spent an outsized amount of taxpayer dollars on spot bonuses totaling $1.2 million over two years for a department with 114 employees.
The state’s largest agency — the Indiana Department of Correction — has 5,149 employees and spent a total of $1.7 million over the two years analyzed. Combined, 10 of the state’s largest agencies spent over $5 million in bonuses, with average payouts ranging from an IEDC high of $2,973 to a low of $231 at the Department of Environmental Management.
Out of the 10 agencies analyzed by the Indiana Capital Chronicle, the IEDC stood out for its hefty, repeated bonuses, including a total of $52,700 over two years to David Rosenberg, formerly the chief operating officer and chief of staff and now the head of the agency.
Gov. Eric Holcomb defended agency spot bonuses overall, which were revamped as part of his 2022 approach to address low state employee retention, and praised the quasi-public IEDC for superseding its goals.
“The IEDC, being a quasi, has a somewhat different mission in the sense that they’re out trying to bring in jobs and capital investment and they have certain goals that we go over at the beginning of every single year and track every single day,” Holcomb said on Wednesday.
He continued, “Specifically with the IEDC, we set a goal to break records every single year in terms of wages, new jobs, and capital investment. We set a record in 2021 at $8.7 billion. Last year, they did $22.2 billion in capital investment. So not only did they surpass … they far exceeded it.”
The IEDC is a quasi-governmental agency, which means it has greater autonomy and less public transparency.
Through a spokesperson, the IEDC shared its 12-page compensation plan and detailed how spot bonus data obtained from the Comptroller’s Office actually included three different categories of bonuses: traditional spot bonuses recognizing job performance, incentive compensation bonuses tied to biannual performance reviews, and sign-on bonuses used to “recruit top talent.”
See the full story here.
