Indiana has never elected governors from the same political
party for more than 20 years in a row. But that’s what
Republican U-S Senator Mike Braun is asking voters to do this
year. Indiana Public Broadcasting’s Brandon Smith sits down
with Braun to discuss some of the biggest issues in the open
governor’s race.
IPB News Statehouse Bureau Chief Brandon Smith: I want
to start by talking about the thing that seems to be on a lot of
Hoosiers’ minds, which is property taxes. You, of course, have
released a property tax plan that would see significant
reductions in people's bills. But the consequence of that is also
that it would potentially drain resources from schools, libraries,
fire and police departments. Can we promise Hoosiers property
tax relief without costing local government?
U.S. Sen. Mike Braun (R-Ind.): So, the bill is mostly about the
feature of limiting increases in the future, because that's the
complaint that everybody had, is their bills got skewed by things
that happened federally that created inflation. Since that was
skewed most unreasonably and homes were, it was just to reset
it where it was pre-COVID. And then going forward, it doesn’t
impact revenue in the sense that it puts a lid on it. It's a template
that you're going to have to get at least half of the legislators to
agree with.
Smith: One of the biggest budget issues the state is going to be
grappling with is the Medicaid program. Is there any way to rein
in Medicaid spending without cutting services that some
Hoosiers are getting already?
Braun: Proudest thing I've done in the real world of running a
business was when I fixed health care with no consultant or
advice. Rebuild this system on prevention and wellness. Give
your employees the tools to do it. Make them health care
shoppers and consumers on your scratches and dents, minor staff.
Protect them on catastrophic risk from an injury or an
illness. Did all of that, cut costs by over 50 percent. We've not
had a premium increase now in 16 years. People think that can't
be true. It can be, if you're entrepreneurial, you take a little risk.
I want to weave that into our own state government's health care
policies.
Smith: An exponential part of education funding, of the
education budget has been towards private schools through the
school voucher program. Indiana has near universal voucher
eligibility at this point. Would you want to see that expanded?
And do we need to have some sort of greater academic
accountability standards for those private schools that accept
public dollars?
Braun: Definitely the latter. And academic standards and
accountability for the vast public school system, I think, still has
not been fleshed out in a way that it needs to be. I like choice,
and I think parents ought to be in the driver's seat, you know, not
established education. And students need to have all those
options as they navigate from K through 12 so that they're
prepared with the right choice of what to do once they're out of
high school.
Smith: So, you think get rid of the income limits on that program
entirely?
Braun: I'm going to look at what the sweet spot is for maybe
enhancing some of the stuff that's worked, but certainly looking
for accountability, that you're not getting a stipend from the
government and you're not performing.
Smith: Is Indiana in the right spot on abortion rights?
Braun: Republicans finally kind of got what they wanted, to
come back to the states. And it did get vetted. It got passed by a
supermajority. I think Indiana is a pro-life state. I don't think a
legislator has lost his or her job on account of it. And if it's not
right, you'd have to bring it back up. I think you make an issue
out of that when you're maybe afraid to talk about some of the
other issues that I think especially national Democrats are weak
on. And my question to Jennifer McCormick would be, where do
you stack up as a Hoosier Democrat on all the big issues that