As a former engineer and an MBA graduate, I tend to be analytical and number oriented. In preparation for the upcoming election, let me share with you some statistics about Indiana over the last four years. The data is from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis Web site www.bea.gov
Indiana Real Gross Domestic Product declined 0.9 percent in the years 2004-2007. This is in spite of a population growth of 2.6 percent. Indiana ranked 44th in the nation in percent change in real GDP.
Real per capita GDP (per person GDP adjusted for inflation) declined from $33,961 to $32,724, a decline of 3.64 percent. In 2004, per person GDP was 93 percent of the U.S. average. By 2007, it was 86 percent. Per capita personal income ranked 35th in the nation at the end of 2003. By the end of 2007, it ranked 44th.
Regarding personal income taxes:
Indiana state personal income before taxes grew 17.7 percent in the years 2004-2007. (Note that if this is adjusted for population growth (2.6 percent) and inflation (16.02 percent), it is a negative number.) During the same period, personal taxes grew by 32.5 percent. These taxes included Federal government personal tax growth of 32.9 percent, Indiana state government personal tax growth of 27 percent, and local government personal tax growth of 64.9 percent. It should be noted that these numbers don't include the sales tax and the real estate property taxes, both which have grown substantially. The bottom line for us Hoosiers is that after taxes and inflation our individual incomes have been declining over the last four years.
I find some of the claims made during the state political debates and in state campaign commercials misleading. I hope that being exposed to some real numbers will help you in selecting your choice of candidates in the upcoming election.
