(Music) Mike Braun unveils his broad first year agenda.

Randy Head steps down as Indiana GOP chair.

Plus, a charter school lobby and more from the television studios at WFYI, it's Indiana Week in Review for the week ending December 6th, 2024.

Indiana Week in Review is made possible by the supporters of Indiana Public Broadcasting stations.

This week, governor elect Mike Braun released a detailed policy agenda focused on five areas tax relief, government efficiency, workforce development, health care and public safety.

Many of the details in Braun's agenda are drawn from proposals he released during the campaign, notably his property tax plan.

He wants to revert property tax bills to 2021 levels and cap future increases at 2 to 3%.

In health care, Braun wants to expand primary care options for Medicaid members, provide small businesses with more tax support for their employees health insurance, and implement an independent audit of state health insurance programs.

Much of his agenda will require legislative approval, and Braun says he wants to wear lawmakers out with collaboration.

Working in the trenches with legislators on those key agenda items so that you're not trying to ram it through to where there's going to be a consensus and a feel for what is practical to get done out of the gate.

There are plans Braun can enact unilaterally.

That includes adding more options at the Bureau of Motor Vehicles that don't require in-person assistance, creating a one stop shop in state government for Indiana farmers to access services, and establishing a commission to develop a comprehensive energy and water plan for the state.

Is Mike Braun biting off more than he can chew?

It's the first question for our Indiana Week in Review panel.

Democrat Elise Schrock, Republican Mike O'Brien, Jon Schwantes, host of Indiana Lawmakers.

And Leslie Bonilla Muniz, news reporter for the Indiana Capitol Chronicle.

I'm Indiana Public Broadcasting Statehouse bureau chief Brandon Smith.

Elise Schrock is Braun going to broad with this initial agenda?

it is wide reaching and it is difficult historically for a governor, even with a supermajority, to find, you know, consensus on this many issues.

I do think there are some things, I think, that there could be bipartisan consensus on.

And maybe this is me just feeling too much holiday spirit and, but I think, House Democrat Leader Phil GiaQuinta has said it best.

Things like, lower lowering health care costs, and, higher teacher pay.

Those are things that I think you'll see Democrats, you know, be on board with.

However, I don't think that we can talk about, some of these agenda items without also talking about universal pre-K, talking about, child care relief.

So there are some things missing that Democrats really want to talk about, because those are Hoosier priorities.

You know, Brian, in the interview I did with him, talked about he's looking at what he did as a freshman U.S. senator and had a lot of success, at least according to some, metrics.

And one of the ways he felt like he did that was trying to work across the aisle whenever possible.

Not no need to do that here in Indiana with the makeup of the legislature.

But how do you think this process is going to play out for Brown, working with the legislature?

It's going to work out well.

I think it's been is a lot of this has been well received.

I'm reminded of working for Mitch Daniels in 2005.

When he first took office.

He had a stack of executive orders reorganizing government under the, you know, the authority that the governor had.

And he I remember he wanted the IDC bill, the bill that created the Economic Development Corporation passed by the state of the state, which was in two weeks.

So from introduction to passage and signature, he wanted it done in two weeks.

And the legislature said, that's really nice and it passed two months later.

So, so, so there's there's always that interplay right between the governor and the and the legislature, no matter no matter who's in charge.

But in terms of like, has he biting off too much?

Look, he's got 80 agencies, 32,000 employees.

He just created these eight elevated cabinet positions that are going to be higher profile positions where he's, you know, proposed to restructure state government in these kind of vertical, you know, agencies that are going to work with each other, have their own leads, but then have a kind of a cabinet level lead that's a higher profile, more accountable person.

So what he's building a team that can do a lot, and it's going to be focused on doing a lot in this.

You know the plan that he released this week.

There's a lot in there.

But you know had it been two pages long we'd be talking about how he's not doing enough.

That's right.

the thing that I feel like one of the things that that Mike Braun seems most personally passionate about is health care reform.

It's something he you know, he talks a lot about what he did in his business.

He talked about it in the U.S. Senate a lot and tried to work towards that in the US Senate.

And now he's talked a lot about in the campaign.

And it plays a starring role in this.

But at the same time, he also said to me and he said to others, that's the one that I don't think is going to happen right away, but I want to get a lot of this done in my first year, but that's the one that's probably going to take the most time.

Is that just the reality?

There are a lot of moving pieces and parts when you look at health care costs, and we also have to remember that a lot of the reforms, and one would hope improvements that have been put in place in recent years are just now sort of getting up and running in terms of transparency and dashboards and other tools designed to give consumers a better handle on where they can get the most affordable health care.

You're right.

It's a passion of his.

He talks about how not only as a public servant, but as a manager and company owner himself.

I think it's, what, 16 years without a premium increase.

It with his own workplace.

which which, I'm sure he's eager to see what he can bring to the table because this this is a critically important issue.

I'd say if there's one other winner that stands out in the agenda or special interest group, although it's hardly a special interest group, I'd say it's farmers and others who live in rural Indiana.

The reason I say that, and I think it's intentional, this will not be the Indiana, the Indianapolis centric, governor.

I think he's throughout the campaign and the primaries, it's talked about much more of a regional, rural based approach.

You look at what farmers would get out of this agenda.

You know, one stop shopping for their when they come to the state House for or state government offices.

You look at stabilization of farming income.

You look at, better handle on water usage and land usage.

A lot of specific investments in rural businesses and.

Even health care.

not just that's not directly related to farmers, but rural Indiana, which is woefully short.

as far as that, in with this, the the the overall thrust, I don't think the scope is any broader really, than any other governor.

I went back to Bob War and looked at and they all say the same three main topics, and it's economic development, you know, job creation, a good workforce, schools.

That's part of it.

and then we're, you know, that's that's the thrust, the health care costs have kind of come and gone, but education, workforce development, those are those are the constants here.

and maybe there's more specificity in some of the proposals.

Well, I want to I want to I want to ask about that specific point, which is one of the biggest pieces and something he talked about a lot in the campaign, for obvious reasons.

All of the candidates did was property tax reform.

He still, with the specificity of I want to go back to 2021 levels and then cap future increases.

That cap future increases.

The legislature might discuss, but it seems really unlikely lawmakers are going to buy into rolling back property tax bills three years, essentially.

Is he putting too much on the line by being that specific about that high profile, an issue?

I mean, we had the same discussion all throughout the primary election season with, Suzanne Crouch, then a candidate who is running on axing, you know, taxes.

Like we had that discussion all the time of is that even going to be possible?

And I think in the end, it really just matters, how well you can direct that message to people and then how much progress you can make, even if you don't get there all the way.

But yeah, it seems it's unclear how far lawmakers can even go, because we still need to keep to like a market based system.

And we can, you know, school age.

Yeah.

We can't forget who has the bully pulpit, though, to declare himself the winner or loser at the end of the session.

I'm sure this governor, as everyone that has seated him, will have the easel or the dry erase board if we're high.

Maybe even higher tech than that.

Now I'm where you have the things I wanted to accomplish and then check marks, and it's on the framing of them.

He could say, you know what do you celebrate tax reform.

That was a discussion starter.

That was and that's actually where he's at.

Right now when you.

Define your success, and the day after the session, you're you're probably going to come out a winner.

We can make that a safe prediction.

All right.

Time now for viewer feedback.

Each week we post an unscientific online poll question.

And this week's question is, will governor elect Mike Braun be able to accomplish this, accomplish most of his broad agenda in his first year in office?

A yes or B no.

A couple of weeks ago now, we asked you whether Senator Greg Taylor should resign following accusations of sexual harassment.

78% say yes, 22% say no.

If you'd like to take part in the poll.

Go to WFYI.org/IWIR and look for the poll.

Well, Indiana Republican Party chair Randy Head stepped down from that position this week, returning full time to his lobbyist position ahead of the legislative session.

Political scientist Michael Wolfe says political party chairs provide leadership and coordination across their state organizations.

Bring together local party leadership along with recruitment of candidates, and have those people really be able to optimize and win elections.

So it's a extraordinarily important position.

Wolfe says historically, party chairs are more moderate voices as they try to get factions within their party to work together.

That's less true now, as politics is increasingly polarized.

But Wolfe says the next chair of the Indiana GOP will still need to work toward that purpose.

Try and have somebody that can work across, again, a very diverse, ideological regional state like Indiana.

Party chairs are often selected by the highest elected state official in the party, in this case, governor elect Mike Braun.

Mike O'Brien.

What should Mike Braun be looking for in the next state party chair?

Let's not forget Randy Head's biggest accomplishment in the last year, which is officiating my wedding with Lacy.

We go we go way back, and he's a dear family friend and did just a tremendous, tremendous job in the last, the last six months, coming out of the primary, coming out of the convention and, and which.

Was not a transition.

In the way it's a lot some it's always a lot to manage.

I mean, what you're looking for in the next, in the next role is someone, someone that has Randy's characteristics.

Which were your a steady hand.

You're not sunk in one one faction of the party or the other.

You're trying to you're trying to see the whole field get out there like he did.

And, you know, drive to every county in the state and talk at every speak at every Lincoln Day dinner.

And and it connects, you know, the party outside of Indianapolis, mostly.

you know, we're pivoting right into, you know, we get a we get a year off, you know, so we, the parties reorganize and both parties reorganize in March.

and then we pivot right now to, you know, by mid-year, we're thinking about mayoral races, you know, in our municipal races and in, you know, in 20, you know, midterms in 2016, just, you know, ACS in 27 and building that bench and building that, that, that groundwork for, you know, for those for the next election year, it's it never ends.

We just we just reset it.

Mike Braun has talked about how he thought Micah Beckwith joining the ticket, despite Mike Braun's wishes.

United the sort of two factions of the Indiana Republican Party, which was the more conservative wing that obviously Beckwith represents, and then the more establishment wing, if you want to call it that.

But Braun clearly represents more.

I mean, you look at some of his cabinet appointments there, some familiar names and a lot of cases.

How much will the next state party chair tell us how that partnership might be going?

I'm not sure, because they're going to be having to do a lot of cleanup for Micah Beckwith, because what consistently happens is, whatever Mike Braun's agenda is, whatever the new GOP state chair's intentions are, Micah Beckwith is going to do his own thing and the tends to speak out and do whatever Micah Beckwith wants to do.

And so whoever the next person is is going to be, is going to have to do the cleanup job for that.

So, despite who they are and, you know, Indiana deserves two parties that are healthy with leaders that are healthy.

And I agree, Randy had, is, a leader with integrity, someone who I've also known for a long time.

And so, you know, we need both of our parties to be lead with integrity and lead with good leadership.

So I hope that happens obviously for for all of our parties.

but when it comes down to it, that position is going to end up having to probably, spend a lot of their time responding to what Micah Beckwith says.

But respond to who?

Because he does represent a wing of the party that believes those things that he's saying.

He's not like some random stuff.

A lot of it tends to make headlines when there are other things that I'm sure y'all would like to be talking about.

More substantive things that you would like to be talking about, that you're doing in the legislative session where the just think.

I mean, I love the expectation being set that this is just going to be a disaster because anything short of saying.

It's going to be a disaster listening to it, it will be messy.

I don't I don't I don't see that.

I mean, he's going to have his one off things.

Yeah.

He's got his tweets that it.

Has been it has been messy.

But I just don't.

I don't know the convention speech.

It wasn't it wasn't it was messy.

If you're a Democrat or if you're a establishment Republican, you're like, boy, I really wish we would've gotten something else out of that.

If you're a huge segment of the party, you're like, no, I'm for that.

I'm for what was just said, you know, and we're deeply red state.

And it continues to be proven.

So we're a mess that won by 20 points.

Well, so to that end then, historically, the role the party chairs have been more of the establishment wing for the reason that that is literally the establishment a lot of times.

But they in Indiana particularly, they haven't been people who sound off everywhere, who make headlines on their own the way some party chairs in some states absolutely are.

But given the growing segment of the Indiana Republican Party, that is of the Micah Beckwith wing who are happy to have somebody who spouts off about whatever crazy conspiracy theory or right wing cause they happen to be in, you know, passionate about that day.

Are we going to start to see more of those personalities rise more to the fore in the party structure?

Yeah, I was thinking that the other option for this is less of a cleanup crew and more of someone that bridges that gap and gives voice to those concerns from that wing of the party.

Now that you've got someone literally like second like position has second highest position in the state, like.

With a microphone every day.

Yeah, that's a huge like point of visibility for people who are further right on the spectrum.

And we might see that reflected.

because because someone needs to further bring those together.

and you might see that reflected in the next, choice.

But I mean, obviously, it's also got to be someone with connections across the state that can fundraise, because that was another big part of, Randy head's resignation email was record breaking funding.

And so that's a basic.

I think the average person would go well ahead of the Indiana Republican Party right now has got to be the easiest job in the world because they just win everything everywhere except for Marion County and Lake County.

And even then, is it really that easy?

Yeah, I'd say it's tougher because of the, grasp on power, at so many levels, both at local municipal government, county government, state legislative government.

You have to answer not only to factions of the party, your own party, but to those various, constituencies which sometimes don't see eye to eye.

You know, when you cut taxes at the state level, oftentimes that means shifting the burden to the locals, or vice versa.

So, it's not everybody in lockstep.

and just as I've said that when you're president pro tem or, or House speaker of a caucus, that is a supermajority, it tends to be more difficult than if you can have your message control of a of a minority or a very narrow, majority.

But it's, you know, it'll be interesting to see he can be a bridge builder or whoever the successor is, but the keeper of the toll bridge will still be the governor, I would think.

Have to.

It has to by design.

And if you look and that's apparent again in the agenda, we were just talking about how broad it is in scope.

Yes.

But what does it not include social issues?

Let me throw back.

In some ways, it seems to me to Mitch Daniels, and let's have a moratorium on social issues.

With the perhaps exception, you could argue about universal school choice, which is maybe in the.

In the A.

That's a maybe.

I didn't say they wouldn't get in there.

I said who what is the agenda and what will be the governor's interest in keeping the focus on that agenda?

All right.

Indiana's charter schools have lacked an organized group to advocate for policy changes.

But now a new organization hopes to increase funding for charters across the state.

From WFYIs education desk, Rachel Fredette has more.

Traditional school districts receive local property tax dollars to pay for buildings and transportation.

But Indiana's charter schools don't get those same funds.

The newly created Indiana Charter Innovation Center seeks to change that.

The group will ask lawmakers to consider that during the 2025 legislative session.

Scott Bass is the group's founder.

He also sits on the state Board of Education.

Priority number 123456.

Is that kind of equitable funding like looking at how do you.

Close the gap with the districts that are that are.

By most of our charter schools?

Best says he doesn't think a focus on expanding private school vouchers will hinder the group's plan for charter schools.

He says they want the same thing the money to follow the child.

We want access to the local money.

The state's largest teachers union and other traditional public school advocates are critical of funding streams that flow directly to charters.

Leslie, many people are expecting, I'm one of them, expecting lawmakers to restrict school ballot referendums this session in some way, whether to only general elections or only general elections in, you know, the the presidential and midterm elections to any sort of other thing.

Yeah, yeah.

Does that conversation make what this group is trying to achieve easier or harder?

I think in some ways it could complicate it because you'll have I mean, I'm expecting to see traditional public schools, you know, come to the statehouse and say, hey, you know, if you pass these restrictions, you're already squeezing us like we, still educate most of the students in the state.

And we, like, need resources, more resources, not fewer.

But I also think that, you know, when I talked to Scott Bess, he was, said that this is sort of a medium to long term plan, that they don't see this happening like 0 to 100 right away, that it's, he described more of a phased in approach.

And so I would kind of expect them to just get a foot in the door with, that logic that the money follows, the child that follows the student.

You know, this is just an extension of that.

And I think that's a message that legislative leaders will continue to be receptive to.

And so I wouldn't be surprised if they just kind of like get it started and that maybe that gains traction.

Same question easier or harder when you're already having this conversation about school referendum.

It certainly complicates it because studies show that the charters have received, adjusted for inflation, a decent amount of money from the state over the years.

But the knock has been or the concern on the part of operators of these schools is they haven't shared in the levy dollars.

And and if there are restrictions on that aspect of the funding pipeline will certainly that is a is a complicated.

But frankly, I'm surprised there wasn't an organization dedicated to this, constituency before because, as we move more toward the notion that dollars are going to follow students, and that seems to be the drumbeat here, this is a matter of having everybody at the, being represented.

So you have public, traditional public education.

You had certainly various voucher or school choice advocates.

But this sort of brings it fills a seat at the table for that important discussion.

What do you think is the future of sharing referendum dollars with charter schools?

Well, if they open that door, then I think the future of it is it'll be baked into the the increase.

Yeah, right.

The schools won't be.

We're asking for you know, 2%.

It's not going to be 3% or.

Right.

And I mean, you know arguably I mean if you're if you believe what a lot of legislators are arguing, which is we need to move these referendum referenda, to higher turnout elections.

Yeah.

General election, even number of years, whatever.

you know, you arguably you're you say, well, these voters are focused on this, and I've been a part of a lot of referenda, and they are not secret campaigns like, even if it's 10 or 12% turnout, those people know what they're coming for.

Yeah.

That's why.

And that's why the results are sort of consistent.

It's either the school made the case in the in the community believes that the school needs those hours or they don't.

I would just say, you know, I would push back on the notion that there's not a seat at the table already.

I mean, the person starting this organization sits on the state Board of Education.

You know, the phrase money following the child is something that has been used for decades.

Yeah, decades.

So this notion is not new.

It is.

It's it's we we need to be really careful when we're talking about taking money from traditional public schools because they are underfunded.

We know that one of we're talking about increasing teacher pay.

We're talking about how we can better fund our public schools.

so any time we're talking about taking resources away from them, we need to really think critically about what we're doing.

Health care, public safety and school safety.

Those are the issues that Hoosiers want the state government to focus on in 2025.

That's according to results from the latest edition of the Hoosier Survey by the Bowen Center for Public Affairs at Ball State University.

More than 600 people were surveyed, and interim director Kevin Smith says those three issues were rated moderately or very important by nearly all of them.

And that was an outcome that did not vary based on political affiliation.

The survey also asked about whether the state's primary taxes, income, sales and property are fair.

And despite state policymakers recent focus on property tax reform, Smith says the survey shows that Hoosiers view the state sales tax as the most unfair of the three.

A simple answer could be that this is something that people experience on a daily basis, as opposed to the property tax hitting them less frequently.

Nearly half of those surveyed said the sales tax is somewhat or very unfair, while a little over a third said the same about property taxes.

Jon Schwantes, on the tax question.

We've already talked a lot about property taxes at this table so far, and that's been the conversation for months and months.

Are you surprised that it's the sales tax rated most unfair by Hoosiers?

Not necessarily because this, if I'm not mistaken, was conducted these interviews the first week in November, which what else happened that that was the election as I recall.

If I remember my calendar and what was the number one issue that we heard about at the state level, at the at the federal level, inflation, cost of living, I can't buy a loaf of bread.

I can't feed my family, I can't buy a car, I can't do this.

Well, where does which tax plays into the notion of of affordability sales tax.

You're looking at.

That.

That was what you look at every day versus the other taxes which you may be outraged when you see your your assessment.

And and it's harder to see things on your end.

It's harder to see things on your paycheck necessarily than, you know, like, I mean, we have an income tax cut coming in January.

I doubt most people will know about it unless they read about it in the news.

When I read that story in a couple of months.

And when you look at the percentage of if you buy some big ticket item, that can be a nice chunk of change.

So I think that's what has to do with it.

I wouldn't I think this poll is valuable because it looks at people's views about some of the nuances of issues, abortion regulation or not, but in terms of what are the three big issues?

It's a list of 15.

They're just reading it and saying what matters to you.

And I mean, I don't think any of those three are really surprising.

No, but I would, but I think if you didn't prompt people and you said, what issue are you most concerned about?

You get a much more, you get a different outcome.

Yeah.

And by far and it be much.

It is at its point is fair.

Right.

And people and Hoosiers want people to pay their fair share.

Yeah, yeah.

All right.

That's Indiana Week in review for this week.

Our panel is Democrat Elise Schrock, Republican Mike O'Brien, Jon Schwantz of Indiana Lawmakers and Leslie Bonilla Muniz of the Indiana Capital Chronicle.

You can find Indiana Week and reviews podcast and episodes at wfyi.org/iwir or on the PBS app.

I'm Brandon Smith of Indiana Public Broadcasting.

Join us next time because a lot can happen in an Indiana week.

(Music) The opinions expressed are solely those of the panelists.

Indiana Week in Review was a wfyi production in association with Indiana's public broadcasting stations.