Indiana budget panel to consider $88 million to expand LEAP district plans – Indianapolis News | Indiana Weather | Indianapolis Traffic

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — The State Budget Committee on Tuesday will consider spending $88 million to expand a Boone County development project that is expected to include a research center for Indianapolis-based pharmaceutical giant Lilly.

The committee meeting will take place days after Lilly announced plans to more than double its investment in the research center. The facility will be part of the City of Lebanon’s Limitless Exploration/Advanced Pace (LEAP) research and innovation district.

The state government’s Indiana Economic Development Corp. asked the committee to “reallocate” $59 million of the $100 million previously allocated to an effort codenamed “Project Nora.” The money would be used to purchase an additional 2,500 acres to support three unspecified projects for the LEAP district. Once the state has purchased the land, it will be resold to investors.

The development company also wants to “reuse” $29 million of the $100 million previously allocated to “Project Nora” for road and utility works and other infrastructure to support five projects, including the installation of Lilly, in the LEAP district. The other four projects have not been specified.

Both “reallocation” proposals are listed as coming from the state general fund’s closing transaction fund.

David Ricks, Lilly’s chairman and CEO, said May 24 at the Indiana Global Economic Summit that the pharmaceutical company is increasing its spending on the Boone County project by $3.5 billion. This would bring Lilly’s total investment to $9 billion.

In May 2022, Lilly first announced plans to invest $2.1 billion and create up to 500 new jobs in Lebanon. At the April 2023 groundbreaking in Lebanon, Lilly announced an additional $1.6 billion investment and the creation of 200 new jobs at the Boone County site.

Lilly’s larger facility is expected to create what’s called nearly 1,000 “high-wage” jobs in Boone County.

The latest “reallocation” proposals submitted to the Budget Committee note that the state’s investments “will result in tens of billions of dollars in capital investment and the creation of nearly 10,000 jobs in the years to come.”

The LEAP project has drawn criticism over a proposal to take water from other parts of west-central Indiana and move it to the District. As a result, in November, Gov. Eric Holcomb called for more data collection on the proposal to draw and move water. This data collection effort is expected to be completed in fall 2024.

The Budget Committee will meet starting at 9 a.m. Tuesday in Senate Appropriations Room 431 at the Indiana Statehouse in downtown Indianapolis.

Below is a development plan/concept document for the first phase of the LEAP project in Boone County, Indiana. (Image provided/Lebanon Municipal Council.

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