A Wake-Up Call, Then Tel Aviv

On Monday, the Indiana Economic Development Corporation announced that its president, Mitch Frazier, and three other IEDC representatives will travel to Tel Aviv "next week" to pitch Indiana, join an Iron Nation summit and work toward reestablishing an investment office in Israel.

"The cost of the economic development trip is being paid jointly by the Consulate General of Israel in Chicago and through private donations to the Indiana Economic Development Foundation (IEDF). Total costs paid through the IEDF are expected to be up to $20,000." — Indiana Economic Development Corporation, Nov. 9, 2026

The consulate's share is undisclosed, $20,000 is only an expected cap on the foundation's portion, and the release states no total cost.

Four days earlier, Gov. Mike Braun called the midterms a "wake-up call." Voters, he said, were "cranky, irritable." He described himself as "the loudest voice of any governor on affordability," and he said that for "the lower third of the economy," incomes "weren't catching up with inflation."

Monday's release announced no new agreement. Then-Gov. Eric Holcomb signed an economic cooperation agreement with the Israel Innovation Authority in 2018. The office Frazier will work to reestablish is one the IEDC itself shut down in June 2025, terminating its contract a year early in a letter that cited "restructuring of agency priorities."

Audits released in 2025 at Braun's demand showed $10.9 million of IEDF spending in fiscal years 2019 through 2024 went to travel, meals and entertainment. In records the Indiana Capital Chronicle obtained in 2023, the donors behind 14 of 16 transactions from 2020 through 2022 were shielded. An FTI Consulting review of 2022 through 2024 produced no criminal findings, according to Braun's office, and identified 46 of 107 donor entities as having received $238 million in IEDC payments or tax credits. On March 18, Braun said foundation spending would be "targeted" and added, "There aren't going to be big foreign escapades." The planned wind-down was walked back, and this trip still runs through the IEDF on private donations from unnamed donors.

State ethics rule 42 IAC 1-5-1 bars a state employee from accepting travel expenses from a person who has a business relationship with the employee's agency, unless an exception applies or the employee's appointing authority waives the rule in writing. I found no public determination on whether a foreign consulate fits the exception for "public agencies or public institutions." No waiver for this travel has been made public. I allege no violation.

The larger money came in April, when Iron Nation–Indiana was branded as a "$60+ million" initiative, "anchored by a $15 million investment from the State of Indiana." The state's share comes from the IEDC's 21st Century Research and Technology Fund, and Iron Nation managing partner Jason Wolf told the Indianapolis Business Journal that companies the fund backs will not be required to set up shop in Indiana. The first arrival, IBI Ag, has not disclosed its investment and was still choosing a site in September. Its CEO told Inside INdiana Business that "a small number of jobs" is expected over the next two to three years. The IEDC offered up to $500,000 in performance-based reimbursements.

Prometheus Energetics, a Kratos–RAFAEL joint venture in Greene County, is a real project. It broke ground in February, before Iron Nation–Indiana was announced, with an initial $175 million investment and an expectation of 375 workers in Indiana by the end of 2032. That campus does not prove the April fund is delivering.

This column argued on Nov. 2, in "Mike Braun and the Will of Hoosiers," that Braun has sided against Hoosiers on an Iran war they pay for at the pump, and on Nov. 4, in "The Voters Answered the Iran War," that voters answered that war. Now a governor who says he heard the affordability message is advertising a foreign-consulate-funded investment tour in a partnership that still lists defense among its target sectors.

Foreign investment is a normal tool of state development. The IEDC cites more than 1,050 foreign-based businesses and about 218,300 jobs statewide. Israeli agriculture and defense work fits Indiana: IBI Ag plans to work with Corteva Agriscience, and Prometheus is building near Naval Surface Warfare Center Crane. An IEDF share of "up to $20,000" is modest next to a munitions campus.

In my view, Hoosier interests are not the motive for this trip. Donors, lobbyists and bad foreign policy are the motive, and it is disturbing. NIPSCO, Duke Energy, CenterPoint Energy and Rolls-Royce were among the 16 donors behind 78% of the $6 million given to the foundation in 2022 through 2024, and eight others in that group remain shielded. Iron Nation's Indiana partner is former Rep. Luke Messer, now general counsel at Prolific. To me, that is a closed circle of private money and political connections around a public agency. Nothing in the public record shows a quid pro quo or a broken law. Officials still work for the majority of Hoosiers who just told them that costs come first.

If the mission is as strong as the release claims, the administration can publish the consulate's share, the IEDF donors for this trip, the expected cost of the reopened office and an independent count of Indiana jobs attributable to the $15 million.

You can welcome honest investment and still insist that the state's time and capital follow Hoosier priorities. Braun and the IEDC should put the invoices, the donor names and the job figures on the table before they ask anyone to call this a jobs program.