by Whitney Downard, Indiana Capital Chronicle
January 16, 2025
Gov. Mike Braun detailed his first budget proposal Thursday, challenging his eight cabinet secretaries to identify 5% savings — “on average” — across the agencies they oversee in order to pay for priorities like education spending, universal vouchers and tax reform.
However, Braun didn’t have specific examples of savings, instead saying that curbing health care costs and the implementation of new technology could help.
“There’s going to be some low-hanging fruit in there, but there’s nothing that’s not going to be looked at,” Braun said. “We’re just at the beginning of it.”
Senators have made Braun’s property tax reform their first priority this year following double-digit assessment growth in recent years — which hurt thousands of Hoosiers but hit those with low or fixed incomes.
Critics earlier panned Braun’s property tax proposal for the hit to local units of government without a replacement from state funds. Braun said that a third of counties had been “responsible” while other jurisdictions “are going to scramble.”
“Once we figure out what that reset is going to be, I would hope we minimally end up with a lid on what’s going to happen going forward so we never have that (growth) occur again,” Braun said.
School spending, roughly half of the state’s $44 billion two-year budget, would get a 2% increase each year under Braun’s budget but will likely see income from property taxes shrink. When asked how those schools would cope, Braun said the school districts should save some of the incoming dollars in rainy day funds.
“The ones that poorly managed how they spent and overtaxed in the process are who we’re going to get back down to Mother Earth,” Braun said.
