Indiana Governor Mike Braun delivered his second state of the state address this week, telling a joint session of the General Assembly that affordability is his administration's highest priority.

After ticking through what he portrayed as the biggest accomplishments of his first year in office, Braun acknowledged that Indiana families are struggling to make ends meet, especially when it comes to utilities, childcare, housing and health care.

Hi, I'm Jon Schwantes, and on this week's show, we'll ask the first term Republican for more details about his strategy to ease Hoosiers financial hardships in this session and beyond.

Indiana lawmakers from the statehouse to your House.

Indiana Lawmakers is produced by WFYI in association with Indiana Public Broadcasting Stations, with additional support provided by ParrRichey.

At the beginning of his term as Indiana's governor, Mike Braun pledged to lower costs for health care while improving transparency, aiding in small business development and decreasing property taxes.

His signature policy, property tax Reform, evolved through several iterations between the Indiana House and Senate, but ultimately passed with large public support.

The resulting Senate and Act one provided new property tax credits and changed farmland property assessment.

Earning high praise from his Republican colleagues, who echoed the governor's claim that it was, quote, historic.

The change is estimated to lower property taxes for about two third of Hoosier homeowners.

Critics, however, argue that the lost revenue will harm county and municipal governments, which stand to lose an estimated $1.8 billion over the next three years, aiming for government efficiency.

Braun reorganized his cabinet, creating new vertical hierarchies, reporting to cabinet secretaries.

He audited the Indiana Economic Development Corporation to add transparency and accountability, and appointed a new board of directors.

Braun also mandated all state workers return to the office, and launched a new program to enable them to bring infants to work as part of his Family First workplace initiative.

Braun made major cuts in state spending, slashing $2 billion in the biennial budget.

This led to 5% cuts in most state agencies and higher education, and the elimination of funding for trails and public broadcasting.

Braun's first year as governor did not lack challenges.

Several controversies arose involving his lieutenant governor, Micah Beckwith, including Beckwiths purchase of an expensive SUV with state funds.

Allegations of a deep fake AI video circulating among Beckwiths office mates and staff.

His comments about slavery and investigations into ghost employment in the lieutenant governor's office.

Arguably, Braun's greatest challenge was the redistricting debate.

Responding to federal pressure, the governor publicly led support for redrawing congressional maps to favor Republican candidates in this year's midterm election.

Following months of debate, it passed in the House, but failed in the Senate.

I am pleased to welcome.

Fresh from his second state of the state address, Indiana's 52nd governor, Republican Mike Braun.

Thank you for being here on state of the state, address week.

This continues a tradition that dates back, I think, 30 plus years.

So thank you for keeping that.

Intact.

I know it's a busy week.

Your speech was punctuated by applause numerous times.

I didn't have an applause meter running, but the I. My ear tells me that the biggest applause line is when you talked about Indiana University's football team and it's sort of unimaginable season, then squaring off here for the national championship.

A serious question.

What is the impact on the state?

You talk a lot about jobs, and you talk about our image nationally and internationally, even in terms of finances, in terms of brand, in terms of cachet.

Well, what does IU's success this season mean to the state?

So I'll go back, to when I got out of college, I was down in 76 celebrating on the streets in Bloomington because my wife, three of our four kids, IU alum.

So remember that.

And of course, that icon.

You were a Wabash, so you didn't you didn't win the Mon en belle that year, I guess.

All right.

I can't remember if we won that or not, but, I remember what a big deal it was.

And basketball was my favorite sport.

Played it in high school, and our team went to the semi-state.

So you had all that there then.

And that's withstood so many good teams to be the last undefeated team winning the championship.

That had, context to it because we that was when night was done.

That was our fifth.

When you look at Indiana with the stats of having the worst Division one record in football and by the way, two nearly flawless seasons, we're now the second worst.

Historically, that shows you what a deep hole it was.

So in that first year that they lost.

Last year they lost to no Indiana team and Notre Dame.

So I guess for governor of Indiana you can't go wrong on that.

No.

It was a win win.

And here in just a second season, when it's had to carry that type of history around.

I mean, I think saying that he said it correctly, it's, maybe make a movie about it.

I'm sure that will be done.

I'll bet it's in the works already.

Right.

And and each game as they were, you know, I think the one that, really defined the season was actually Penn State because none of this would have.

We could still be where we're at, but it wouldn't carry that added dimension of being undefeated.

And then ironically, 50 years later, I you maybe housing a record that it would really be hard to imagine any other school could do both.

So I think all of that plays into, next Monday having, that, build up to where every Hoosiers excited about it.

And that was a big applause line, I think along with that, what the state police have done and National Guard and of course, that's got other underpinnings for why that would be.

And, so I'm excited.

And then you weave in stuff that you just get the as a freebie, the kid nine year old from shows your new education advisor, as you dubbed him.

Yes.

That is, calling for a little bit of, latitude.

Game.

So which you said is a great idea.

I won't call for it unilaterally, but a great idea.

I don't have that within my power to do.

But, basically said it'd be a good idea and let it up to local school districts.

Are you going to the game?

We just heard a number of governors will be there, and in fact, just heard that the president, Donald Trump, Marco Rubio, will be there.

Okay.

What are your plans?

Maureen and I are going to be there.

So, looking forward to it.

We were at the Ohio State championship Big Ten game and did not go to the Rose Bowl or the Peach Bowl.

I was, definitely going and Maureen, being an alum, there would have been no question.

And governor of a state that's in that, it just one of the benefits that, it's just fun to do and I'm hope and really, where we were kind of second guessing, I think Alabama and Oregon pretty well put any of that to rest that if we just stick with what we've been doing, it's just a really good chance of culminating in a big night.

And I was in the stands, by the way, for the Penn State game.

Not that I'm saying I'm the good luck, but I'm happy to be there.

I remember I took 2 or 3 looks on the instant replay to see how there was a tie.

I knew right away you didn't.

They didn't ask me, though.

They didn't ask me.

You know, on the subject of big showdowns, high stakes contests, and we mentioned Donald Trump.

Let me ask you, and we'll get into the speech.

But this stage was set for this session by this unusual battle over redistricting, something that Donald Trump had pushed vociferously, something you pushed vociferously.

Essentially, it was a defeat for you and 21 members of the Senate, Republican caucus joined with ten, all ten Democrats to reject what you had called for.

I'm not asking you to relitigate that, but, how does your defeat, your setback there affect your standing going into this session?

I'll put that in the context of what I did 37 years prior to getting to the Senate.

And, you know, I'm an outsider, entrepreneur, business owner.

Most would never want to become a senator.

Our governor worked out for me.

Many think that you should be from the farm system of politics.

I can tell you that you're so much better prepared for the ups and downs, the ebbs and flows, because that's the nature of a business.

I mean, there are no guarantees they're here.

I get asked all the time.

Well, how do you like being a governor versus a senator?

I'd say they're both easier than running a business, especially a small one that you scale over time.

There's so many pitfalls and everything is on the line there.

So it gives you that dynamic in here.

I think the folks that are maybe philosophically not aligned with where I'd be, and I when I debated Joe Donnelly, I said the key is I respect your point of view and I'm not going to demonize you.

And I would expect that in return.

I think that's what's gotten into politics, too, where all of a sudden, if you disagree, it gets to that level.

And that was the opponent you unseated when you yeah, won election to the Senate for those, you know, discussion about abortion, where he tried to beat me.

And I had so much practice in DC, that you're not going to get that often with me.

And I do know the subject matter.

And when it comes to this, this was a national issue that descended upon the state.

And it wasn't a surprise because there were 3 or 4 others that already did it.

And where you stated it like that, I would say it's more a consequence for those that were against it, and that to me, still doesn't have anything to do with last night or why I ran for governor, because you've got to be able to separate issues like that, not generalize upon them.

And that's how you get through life, because life is full of victories and defeats.

And I think the hardest thing I ever did was running for Senate, starting with 1%.

So I know how to get from here to there.

And the people that are philosophically against you will never give you the benefit of the doubt.

And like, when Schumer and whoever his folks were that financed a $30 million negative campaign on a guy from Mayberry RFD that happened to know how to get from here to there, it's a good story.

I think it's the story that was sellable.

And make sense.

It's not going to please people once you get there necessarily.

And anymore, winning in a landslide is 55%.

So that means 4.5 out of every ten people don't like you disagree with you?

Mostly both.

So here this was something that came from afar, came to Indiana.

We were the exception to the rule and whether that's going to work or not.

Jon, in terms of, mid decade redistricting, it's doesn't seem to have as much cachet simply because California countered.

But to me, it was valid because it addressed an inherent inequity of the playing field, not being even in the loudest voices against it, or the ones that have gerrymandered so well over the years.

And I don't want to dwell on this because we are here to talk about the speech.

But one more question, if I may.

You did expend a lot of capital, and you ultimately do.

It is expanding very little cap.

Okay.

Well, and the fact is, when you look at all that we've gotten done, the fact that probably did more executive orders in the last three governors put together, they're already doing legislation based upon the initiatives we put in place.

And the thing that gets overlooked most, is what we did, to reorganize state government, to actually navigate through, imagine a property tax issue that dominated everything.

And it is historic tax relief.

The very far extreme wanted to go more.

And then you got mostly Republican, officeholders, local government officials that think maybe it was too much.

So capital is something that, again, the analog to business, if you are on base and you can make a message like, I think it was a very good one last night, you just go from this to that.

And I think that has very little, applicability to what I think can happen working with the legislature over the next three years.

Of course.

Now, you had said, along with the president that you would work to defeat the 21 members, including the Senate president pro tem, who, voted against the redistricting proposal.

Are you going to.

He's not up this year, of course, two years, but I how seriously are you about defeating these 21 people?

So that's a consequence that will, play out over time.

And I think they were out of sync with most Republicans and conservatives in our state.

The loud voices, like on most would.

I think our side comes more from a silent majority point of view.

And when you look at people that said they were against it, I think most Republicans, by a large margin and conservatives wanted it to occur.

It took a while to get there, and I think that the main consequence will be just what you've mentioned.

And again, I'm going to focus on affordability.

I've been the loudest voice in the U.S.

Senate for reforming health care, which is out of sync with most Republicans.

Fixed it in my own business.

18, 18 years without a premium, based on wellness and prevention, not expensive remediation.

No business owner has been able to do that that I'm aware of.

And most Republicans and conservatives don't want to wrestle with it because it's the biggest interest group out there.

It's the biggest part of our economy, and therefore you'll have the most blowback from insurance companies and hospitals for it.

Right.

And we do we when you look at the health care arena and other things, we rely on a lot of federal money.

Right.

And you had expressed concern and lieutenant governor and others had if this doesn't pass, redistricting doesn't pass.

We're going to suffer costs.

I'll make it very simple.

Yeah, that wasn't betting the farm.

And for anyone that says that they're doing it because they were inherently probably not with you in terms of the other stuff you're for, which is leaner government and the approach.

So I think if you put too much emphasis on that, the only concern I'd have would be for the ones that dug in that were out of sync and how that evolves.

I don't, but it may not.

You're not going to be leading the charge against them if they if they're going to be focusing on kitchen table issues and you're not worried about repercussions long term, about federal spending, or about decisions about what could be placed here that hasn't played out well, you got your waiver.

My relationship is good there.

And the only thing that'll be a consequence is the degree to which that was a political mistake.

And I know it made folks against it feel good.

And they kind of, you know, maybe extrapolate that into something bigger nationally.

I think that's a mistake.

Florida just came out, you know, and DeSantis is pursuing it.

That was kind of maybe now it's concrete.

We'll see what happens.

All right.

Let's talk about another showdown.

And this one you want to talk about.

I bet the showdown against inflation, higher costs in some of the arenas you talked about that was the thrust really of your speech.

You talked about some of your accomplishments in the first year of office, but then affordability, how you talked, you use the phrase affordability crisis.

Now, you attributed it also to the last administration issue, but that's 100% true.

We never know.

The prices have gone up.

I saw new data yesterday, sent prices down down from the Gulf, two and 3%, which is 1% off the norm in the Biden administration delivered us roughly 25% inflation, 22, 23 and 24.

I was there.

And what we did during the CARES act, every rep and senator voted for it.

That was enough.

4 trillion.

That was Covid to to shore up the CARES act.

Yeah, yeah, that was a mistake because it was an overreaction to Covid.

And as we went through it, it was severely detrimental to elderly man with comorbidities.

And the advice was just wrong.

And we borrowed and spent tons of money, most of us that respected it and did things more along the lines of a common sense reaction came through it.

Well, that had some contribution to it.

But then when the Biden administration socially engineered the stuff they wanted to do through Build Back Better, the inflation reduction Act, I mean, that was an oxymoron.

That is what we're dealing with.

And you, when you create that much inflation, that's baseline in to the new pricing table.

And the only way you're going to lower stuff is by supplying more of it.

But you're basically inherited that just like we have over time.

So it is still the hangover effect of bad policies from that administration.

And I think maybe there was not enough focus on though, that narrative and to where the Trump administration's now having to come from behind to explain it.

But what they're doing sets the stage for to mitigating the inflation that Biden gave us.

All right.

Well, regardless of how it started, let's you can agree that I was a little bit guys, I'm sure there were very few of us in the Senate that had.

Yeah, you were in the front row seat macroeconomics business experience and have lived your life where you've had to deal with these factors and actually have some foundation for making sense of what you're saying about the Hoosiers that you talked about in your speech that are hurting.

You've targeted several areas housing, utility costs, health care, child care.

Let's take them in that order.

Yeah.

You endorsed several bills.

You didn't necessarily have your own agenda, but you made very clear you said 100% behind certain bills.

Doug Miller's bill.

Representative.

That would create more housing.

Why was Adam Dog back when I was in in the house.

And that's this is this is basically, taking removing some of the local control over building what materials you could use to build.

Can you have a setback?

Can you do this, this side?

Well, but important to do that, it is because the places that have already com gotten through that, like the Cook Medical Group, Steve Ferguson, they've been doing it and West Baden, Spencer in Bloomington, they're getting together with the local jurisdictions.

Don't make it an impossible journey.

The stubborn utilities work with us and they've been able to take 10% out of a starter home.

Guy named Ryan Keller in Terre Haute has done it, even on a larger scale.

Those are entrepreneurs in the private sector.

So it's not a mystery of what needs to be done.

And Doug's bill formalizes that.

And I've been on that, you know, since I've been running for governor.

And that's part of getting more out of less and making sure some of the regulations that might have had some good intention aren't making it difficult in the real world to actually lower costs.

Any concern about encroaching on local control?

We hear that all the time.

You know, this is and they still have to, you know, my point is do this in a collaborative way.

Work with your local homebuilders.

Doug's formalizes that and probably takes I haven't read the bill particularly, but it is going to be something that is if it passes, which I think it probably will, is going to make it easier for homebuilders to do their job without sacrificing something that's going to make it, negative over the long run by doing it.

And, let's take them again in order utility costs.

You've, you pointed, you mentioned, and you cited her, your new yes or new utility counselor who you've pointed out her first action was to say, know, go back to the drawing board.

I want to see less, not more.

You have three new members, including, Andy's a state senator who just left now.

He'll be the IRC chair.

How hopeful are you that that can make a real good.

First of all, let's use some simple numbers there.

There are five on the commission.

There are three that are going to be ratepayer conscious and this is like a turning of the page.

I think the ICRC, has been very accommodating, to the IOUs, most of the issues you hear out of them, not the municipals, not the remix.

A co-op like, Hoosier Energy, would be to their members and Wabash Power.

That's different.

And I think it's probably been a better, utility format to deal with for those that have it.

But here this is the first issue we can completely get out in front of.

And you saw Abby graze.

That case will actually run through the ICRC.

You probably in April, and they all know it.

And again, it's something well, data centers inevitably will come up if we get it right.

And I just spoke to one of the hyperscalers last night.

They now know that they're going to have to not only pay for all the generation, they're going to have to add electrons back onto the grid, and you're going to have enough issues of trying to put them in near population centers.

They're not going to like it for reasons other.

And in addition to rates possibly going up.

So you have to prove that you're not impacting current rate payers, families and businesses.

And we're getting that straight out of the gate.

They want to come to Indiana because of our business, climate and environment.

And if we get it correct, it would be such, a benefit to 70 of our rural counties that have plenty of land.

They take up a relatively small amount.

You try to stick it next to Franklin Township or in populated areas, you'll get blowback because they just don't want one.

But it's going to be a it's probably driving two thirds of our GDP growth currently in the countries because it's that big a deal.

China is trying to get ahead of us on AI, and you need data centers to power the technology to make sure you're going to stay abreast, finishing out the list, health care and child care.

You endorsed again, you endorsed Bill several bills last night, one that would require hospitals to be more, open about assistance plans and payment programs and those types of things for patients.

So there's a specific bill now with child care, though, which we've had a couple dozen closures just since last session of child care facilities because of the money squeeze.

Ostensibly you said, you cited it as an important issue and something to be dealt with, but you said you're eager to dig into it in the budget session, which is not now, but next.

What, if anything, can be done.

This number one, the, both chambers are not interested in reopening the budget, so I'll do like.

Are you I guess I, to me, I would be agnostic on that because now that that faulty forecast based upon tariffs, which the market had completely discounted, that's where that forecast came from.

And constitutionally, we've got to adhere to that forecast.

And if you recall, that was about a week before the budget session ended.

You throw property taxes.

And that into it in the be in as good a shape we are politically last night kind of punctuating it.

And that should be an indication to where I don't know how you could have had a rougher issue to deal with on property taxes and then getting that surprised, and by the fact that I said I was going to run government more efficiently, we've now regained that billion back and our cash flows proving it.

So that gives us a lot of flexibility either now, if there was an appetite, but I don't think we could put together legislation that would be smart enough to deal with an issue like childcare without working on it for a while.

Fair enough.

I'm going to.

We only have 20s probably.

So I'll ask you to be brief, but let's start where we end, where we started with football, with sports you talked about in your speech getting the Chicago Bears to be, well, maybe not the Hammond Bears of the year, but getting their facility here.

How realistic is that?

Again?

We're almost out of time, but.

So, it is in the stages where we're discussing the details of it.

They have clearly publicly said they've been rebuked, by their own legislature and mayor.

And that, to me was a critical error, because they're going to find the more they look that Indiana would be a much better place long term to have a franchise.

All right.

I'll get my season tickets.

Governor, thank you so much for being here again.

My guest has been Republican Governor Mike Braun.

Time now for analysis.

Joining me are Ed Feigenbaum, publisher of the newsletter Indiana Legislative Insight, part of Hannah News Service, and Laura Merrifield Wilson, Associate Professor of political science at the University of Indianapolis.

Ed, big takeaway.

Oh, I think people always look for leadership in a state of the state address.

And I think the governor kind of deferred on some of that to the legislature.

He's the first governor since Otis Bowen to come from the Indiana House of Representatives.

I think he thinks that the legislature should lead on a lot of these initiatives.

But at the same time, he's leaving a lot of room for himself.

He doesn't feel inhibited by anything that they're doing or not doing.

And he talked about the executive orders being a big part of his his business and agenda.

And I think you'll see more of that going forward.

Laura.

Your take.

He clearly highlighted efficiency.

And I think that's something typically the Democrats have been very successful at in terms of a policy.

He talked about utilities, which we knew would be important.

He talked about health care.

He talked about property tax, really focusing obviously on the highlight.

That was a big victory for him in the last legislative session.

But I think that's obviously something really important for him.

And that is something that he's really focused on in this in this year.

And you think endorsing bills rather than proposing his own makes sense?

I think he had to, especially because you're coming midway through the legislative session since they already met last month and they're nearly at the halfway point.

That makes it tricky in a state of the state address, because you're not talking about what you really want to do.

You're talking about what's going on.

This the final deadline, that's for sure, and a victim of circumstances at this point because of the schedule.

All right.

We'll leave it there.

Thanks to both of you.

Appreciate your insight.

Thank you.

John.

Coal and natural gas remain Indiana's primary sources of electricity.

But with AI related energy demand soaring, policymakers are looking to renewables and perhaps modular nuclear reactors to meet the need.

On the next, Indiana lawmakers.

Well, that concludes another edition of Indiana Lawmakers.

I'm Jon Schwantz, and on behalf of our analysts and crew, WFYI Public Media and Indiana's other public broadcasting stations, I thank you for joining us, and I invite you to visit Fiord for more statehouse news.

Until next week, take care.

Indiana Lawmakers is produced by WFYI in association with Indiana Public Broadcasting Stations, with additional support provided by ParrRichey.