Avon officials on Aug. 14 reviewed the first-year results of the town’s Make My Move pilot and discussed a proposal to expand incentives and continue the program for another year.

Make My Move liaison Ryan Pike told the council the program aimed to recruit remote workers to relocate to Avon. “We did not get 10 households, we got 5 households,” Pike said, adding that the five moves generated about $223,800 in estimated annual economic output and about $30,306 in new annual state and local tax revenue in year one. Pike said the town’s investment so far is about $53,000. "For every dollar that's been invested right now, we've had with the town of Avon $4.21 were generated in year 1 alone," he said.

The program had been structured as a 10-household campaign with a one-to-one match from the Indiana Economic Development Corporation (IEDC). Pike said the Make My Move team did not meet the ten-household target in the first year but reported a healthy applicant pipeline: 21 active applicants including eight late-stage applicants, and four hundred forty-three total applicants to date for Avon. Pike said late-stage applicants represented a potential additional annual economic impact of about $448,000, with an average household income of about $94,000 and applicants from six states.

Why it matters: council members and staff said the program could become more important under state school funding and property tax changes, which they expect to increase the value of attracting higher‑income residents. Town staff described the program as a partnership with Make My Move and IEDC matching funds and said they have budgeted toward a possible renewal.

What’s proposed: Pike and Make My Move staff proposed increasing the cash relocation incentive for future movers to a $7,000–$7,500 range and adding family-focused benefits (for example, youth‑sports fee waivers, attraction or performance passes, and local dining packages) to raise the appeal to families. Pike cited examples from other counties where raising incentives produced higher move counts. The program team also proposed applying an additional $2,500 to the remaining five recruits from year one and increasing the incentive for the next 10 recruits; he said a line‑item total to implement that version would be about $87,500 and that the IEDC had already approved the pro forma for state matching.

Budget and next steps: town finance staff said the town has $80,000 in the budget for renewal and that staff would present a formal agenda item at the council’s Aug. 28 meeting. Pike said Make My Move had continued work for Avon at no cost while state funding questions were pending and that the county and regional partners had been engaged in some cases. Council members asked about measurement and eligibility: Pike said Make My Move uses economic modeling software (InPlan) to estimate local spending and tax impact and that movers typically retain the remote jobs they held in their prior state, which is the basis for IEDC treating relocations as job creation.

Officials did not vote on the program renewal at the Aug. 14 meeting but scheduled a discussion and potential action for the Aug. 28 council meeting.