Indiana Industrial Assessed Value Jumps 25.8% Ahead of 2027 Tax Bills

Indiana's industrial assessed value is up 25.8% for taxes payable in 2027, more than three times the 7.3% increase on the residential side, and that gap means a larger share of the local property tax levy could land on manufacturers in counties that haven't hit the 3% circuit-breaker cap. Andrew Berger, President and CEO of the Indiana Manufacturers Association, cited the data in a September 24 commentary in the Indiana Capital Chronicle. Two more developments this week land on the same budget: Amazon's new robotics plant in Greenwood, and a derecho that shut down a Porter County shop floor for weeks.

Indiana Industrial Assessed Value Surge Leaves a TIF Depreciation Gap

Berger ties the increase to factory growth, reclassified farmland, and the first update to industrial construction cost tables in four years. New base on the tax roll doesn't raise the bill on your existing plant by itself, and rates and levies get recalculated as values rise. But when industrial value grows three times faster than residential, more of the levy falls on manufacturers wherever the circuit-breaker cap doesn't already limit it.

Senate Bill 1 eliminated Indiana's 30% depreciation floor for equipment placed in service after January 1, 2025, but property inside TIF allocation areas kept that floor. If your plant sits inside a TIF district, equipment you place in service from 2025 forward stops depreciating at 30% once it ages, while a competitor outside the district can write the same machines down further. Ask your county auditor whether your parcel sits in a TIF allocation area, and ask your tax advisor how any abatement you hold interacts with that floor.

Amazon's Greenwood Robotics Plant Will Recruit Your Welders and CNC Operators

Amazon is putting more than $100 million into a 585,000 square foot robotics plant at 1175 Collins Road in Greenwood, Johnson County, its fourth U.S. robot-making facility. The company has committed to 300 jobs averaging nearly $100,000 by the end of 2028, a figure that includes manufacturing engineers and program managers alongside welders, CNC operators, and powder coating technicians. Amazon is retrofitting an existing building rather than building new, so hiring will ramp ahead of that date. The real sign hiring has started will be equipment-installation announcements, not the jobs number itself. Benchmark your welder and CNC pay in the Indianapolis metro now, before those postings land.

Derecho and NIPSCO Outage Cost Konrady Plastics a Month of Overtime

The August 11 derecho left more than 290,000 NIPSCO customers in Northwest Indiana without power and shut down Konrady Plastics' Portage shop floor, in Porter County, for weeks. CEO Leah Konrady told the National Association of Manufacturers that competitors in Chicago, Indianapolis, and Cincinnati covered her orders with overtime and spare equipment time while the plant was dark. Catching up once power returned took nearly a month of overtime, including weekends. Konrady had a generator sized for the office, not the floor, which is a common way plants size backup power. Ask NIPSCO where your feeder sits in the restoration priority queue and whether your load qualifies for priority restoration. If NIPSCO has an open reliability proceeding at the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission, that's where manufacturers can put outage costs on the record.

Questions for Your Morning Huddle

Q: Is my plant inside a TIF district, and does that change how my equipment depreciates? A: Check with your county auditor to confirm whether your parcel sits in a TIF allocation area. If it does, equipment placed in service from 2025 forward stops depreciating at the 30% floor once it ages, while a competitor outside the district can write the same machines down further.

Q: Should I expect Amazon's Greenwood plant to raise my labor costs? A: Not immediately. Amazon's near-$100,000 average wage includes engineers and program managers, not just trades. But expect welder and CNC pay to price above the Indianapolis metro market once equipment-installation announcements show hiring has actually started, so benchmark your pay now.

Q: What should I ask NIPSCO before the next storm, not after? A: Ask where your feeder sits in the restoration priority queue and whether your load qualifies for priority restoration. That answer tells you more about how long you'd be down than the size of the generator sitting outside your office.

These three developments share one thing. The assessor's cost tables, Amazon's pay scale, and NIPSCO's restoration queue are all decisions made somewhere else that land on your budget. You can't set any of them, but you can find out where you stand on each before the next filing, hiring wave, or storm. If a derecho or an ice storm is what finally gets backup power onto your capital list, our guide to C&I backup power strategy walks through diesel, natural gas, and battery architecture before you're choosing between weekend overtime and a six-figure claim.