opinion

Swarens: A trash-talking Indiana steps off the RFRA bench

It's strange to see aw-shucks, stare-at-your-feet Indiana develop an attitude. But I like it.

Especially only a couple of months after everybody from the nation's chief executive, Barack Obama, to its chief theologian, Charles Barkley, bashed the state because of the self-inflicted chest wound known as the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.

Most of us expected the state's economic development team to play defense for a long time — please don't cancel your convention, please don't skip our meeting, please return our phone calls. No, no, we really are a state that welcomes everybody. And, hey, in the meantime, can we throw in a couple of tax credits as snazzy house warming gifts?

So it was a bit surprising to see a full-page ad in the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday inviting Connecticut-based companies General Electric, Aetna and Travelers to relocate their operations to Indiana. It was a brash, in-your-face move — from a player who just got off the end of the RFRA bench.

Yet a bit of trash-talking is welcome. Hoosiers have apologized for far too long for not being from somewhere more glamorous. Like Wisconsin.

In addition to the ad, Gov. Mike Pence sent a letter, lightly scented with the essence of pork tenderloin, inviting the companies' CEOs to drop in next time they're flying over the neighborhood.

Connecticut wasn't selected at random, of course. Its governor, Dannell Malloy, recently helped push $1.1 billion in tax increases, including another $700 million in business taxes, through the state legislature. That "you'll-take-another-swat-and-like-it" approach comes in a state that already has one of the worst business tax climates in the nation.

Connecticut's latest tax hikes prompted executives from the three companies solicited in Indiana's Wall Street Journal ad to publicly object. General Electric even sent a letter to employees alerting them that it had formed a team to "look for another state with a more pro-business environment."

Although Indiana wants to be that state, it's hard to imagine that GE would abandon Fairfield for Franklin. But that was not really the point of the ad.

Instead, it's about trying to rebuild Indiana's brand, which suffered incalculable damage from the RFRA storm, and it's about gradually shifting the conversation, at least among business types, toward one of the state's strengths — its tax and regulatory environment.

This isn't the first time Indiana leaders have overtly targeted businesses in another state. In 2011, the IEDC launched its "Illinoyed" campaign after our neighbors to the west jacked up taxes to levels that would embarrass payday loan operators. Since then, a few companies have hopped the Wabash, including Pioneer Oil which recently moved its headquarters from southern Illinois to Vincennes.

In return, Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner said this year that he intends to "rip the economic guts out of Indiana."

Malloy, Connecticut's governor, wasn't quite so polite.

He told the Hartford Courant. "I think what (Pence) should be saying is 'if you want your employees to be forced to live in a state with a bigoted governor, come to Indiana.'"

Wow, now that's trash-talking.

It's tempting to fire back. After all, Dannell Malloy is the governor of a state best known as one of New York's lesser suburbs.

But let's not go there. Let Connecticutians — Connectivites? Connects? Cons? — deal with their own governor.

Lord knows, we have enough problems dealing with our own.

Contact Swarens at tim.swarens@indystar.com. Follow him on Twitter @tswarens.