Friday, a reader of mine sent me a link from the Indianapolis Star who is reporting poverty in Indiana is increasing.You can read the article here. Here is a sample:

The Indiana Institute for Working Families report — “The Status of Working Families in Indiana” — contains a provocative summation: Indiana has declined from being a Midwestern economic leader to more closely resembling “a Southern state” with stagnant wages and increasing poverty.

The report, by the left-leaning advocacy group, lays the blame at the feet of state lawmakers, who have passed policies, at least according to the report, that have contributed to Indiana now having the highest rate of low-wage jobs and low-income working families in the Midwest.

Indiana led Midwest states with 31.8 percent of families below 200 percent of the federal poverty line in 2016, up from its fifth place ranking among Midwest states in 2007, according to the report.

The first huge glaring economic fallacy from the Indiana Institute is they are using a 200% poverty level number. The federal government does not use that. They use 100% in some cases or even 138% to get people on medicaid. You can see tables here via People Keep.

A big economic premise is that household incomes are stagnant and basically no growth in the state. Well, one economic indicator to either confirm or debunk this is tax revenue streams to the state. Indiana has not raised income taxes and relies on yearly growth either by population (economies of scale) or rise in income. Indiana’s population growth is pretty stagnant. So, the state has had income growth and more people entering the work force with it’s low unemployment numbers.

In 2012, the state reported taking $4.765 Billion in income tax revenue. In 2018, it is projecting it will take in $5.816 Billion in income tax revenue. This is a 22% in growth of revenue with NO tax increases.

This Labor Day, remember Indiana is stable economically and on a conservative growth path even with major news outlets propping up cancerous economic fallacies.