Gov. Braun talks possible property tax veto, budget goals as legislative session hits halftime

Gov. Mike Braun talks to reporters during a news conference halfway through the legislative session on Tuesday, Feb. 25, 2025. (Leslie Bonilla Muñiz/Indiana Capital Chronicle)

Indiana Gov. Mike Braun pushed property tax savings and budget cuts — expressing little concern that federal slash-and-burn tactics would hurt the state — in a Tuesday news conference held halfway through the ongoing legislative session.

During the 30-minute availability at his Statehouse office, he also highlighted priority health, education and public safety bills.

“Everyone’s listening to what I ran on. The ‘freedom and opportunity’ agenda is ringing well across the board,” Braun told reporters.

Legislation originating in the House or Senate will switch chambers when lawmakers reconvene next week. Among them is Senate Bill 1 — what’s left of Braun’s property tax relief plan. Senators backed away from significant portions this month.

Now, it’s heading to the House. Braun said discussions are underway.

“Speaker (Todd) Huston knows that he’s probably going to be in … the catbird seat to please Hoosiers and local governments. I’m going to be out there as an advocate again to get it in that right place. So you haven’t seen the end of it,” Braun said.

He emphasized collaboration in finalizing the proposal.

“In this administration, … there’s been more collaboration with the Legislature than we’ve seen in a long, long time. They’re coming to see me at the residence. We’re having meetings with everyone in here,” he said. “We’ll get to a point where we’ll find out that solution.”

Braun acknowledged that Indiana’s Constitution affords the governor a weak veto, so it’s more effective when used on measures that passed on narrow margins. That’s because lawmakers can overturn a veto with a simple majority vote.

But if that solution doesn’t materialize, he said, “I’m not going to be afraid to use any of the tools that I have here as governor of Indiana.”

That could include calling a special session if he doesn’t like the final product.

Braun also threw his support behind a contentious attempt to force traditional public schools to share property tax dollars with public charter schools, stressing his support for school “choice.”

“I think those resources ought to be shared, and we’ll find the resources to do it. And we’ve not taken anything away from public education,” he said. “We’ve committed that it’s the most important thing we do in our budget. So I’m going to be interested in making sure that everyone gets resourced.”

Budget progress and more

Where the Senate made big changes to a Braun agenda item, there’s “not a lot of daylight” between the governor’s budget and the House’s version, which now heads to the Senate.

Braun asserted that Hoosier government grew too much from 2022 through 2024, adding, “Keep doing that and you’re running like the federal government. The difference is they got a printing press in the basement.”

He pushed for lower spending, telling reporters not to confuse “our normal economic growth with the largesse that came from the federal government” during the pandemic.

Braun was unconcerned that sudden efforts — led by billionaire Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency — to indiscriminately cut federal spending would hurt Indiana’s budget.

He recalled serving on the U.S. Senate’s budget committee for six years without even being able to find consensus on a top line, let alone a budget. During his tenure, he said, Congress added another $18 trillion to the nation’s deficit.

“If you knew that every dollar of a new federal program now is 100% borrowed, you probably think differently in terms of, is it a good idea,” Braun said of DOGE’s pursuits.

He also highlighted health care bills on site-neutral pricing, prior authorization reform, Medicaid fraud enforcement, nonprofit hospital activities, hospital merger and acquisition regulations, prescription drug price reporting and pharmacy benefit managers.

Priority education legislation would expand Indiana’s near-universal “school choice” system, boost minimum teacher salaries, double down on school safety improvements, push career scholarship and education savings accounts, tweak the school rating format and more.

Asked about a bill banning diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives in government and schools, Braun noted that he’d recently met with a group of Black pastors and educators, as well as the historically Black Martin University.

“I think we all know what’s meant by merit: we want the best folks … based upon their ideas and what they’re bringing to the table,” he continued. “… When it comes to equity versus equality, to me, that’s simple. If you’re focusing too much on equity, you’re contriving outcomes through government.”

Braun additionally underscored proposals to “make sure that prosecutors have failed to apply the law are held accountable,” step up penalties for certain crimes and increase deputy prosecutor funding — and recently signed executive orders affecting state agency operations, health care and immigration enforcement.

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