Indiana has never elected governors from the same political party for more than 20 years in a row. But that’s what U.S. Sen. Mike Braun (R-Ind.) is asking voters to do this year. Indiana Public Broadcasting’s Brandon Smith sat down with Braun to discuss some of the biggest issues in the open governor’s race.
You can also find interviews with the Democratic and Libertarian candidates.
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 – or government – was when I fixed health care with no consultant or advice. If you've got the nerve, 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 stuff. 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.
READ MORE: What do I need on Election Day? The general election is Nov. 5
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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 Democrats espouse above and beyond abortion?
Brandon is our Statehouse bureau chief. Contact him at bsmith@ipbs.org or follow him on Twitter at @brandonjsmith5.