Braun Calls for Efficient Government
Published: Friday, March 21, 2025
Gov. Mike Braun related statewide agricultural opportunities and potentials in Indiana during his keynote speech last Wednesday at the AgriNovus Quadrant event in Indianapolis. He also shared his plan to bolster Indiana' economy and residency.
Braun's end goal for his administration is to reorganize the executive side of the state government to create a more effective branch of state leadership.
"I want all our agencies to be running just like I ran a business, with customer service being key—constituent service in this case," Braun said.
He added that he plans to re-evaluate administrative spending for efficiency and to ensure Indiana has a "well-functioning government," and then he wants to focus on a few key items that he believes will make Indiana's growth rate more competitive in relation to other states.
Those items include: becoming "the lowest health care state with the best outcomes," reworking the education system to incentivize in-state career learning, increasing economic development, and making Indiana a more attractive state to live in.
"I see a lot of our state. And the part that stands out: you've got at least 70 of the 92 counties that the main business is agriculture," Braun said.
When Braun looks at the state of Indiana, he said he sees agricultural opportunity in "every nook and cranny," even in more urban settings due to the rise of agrivoltaics.
"You're seeing how you can add value to a soybean or corn kernel for so many different applications. And we're the No. 1 manufacturing state per capita. I see potential everywhere," he said.
He plans to achieve this potential in the same way he created a successful business: by adapting to new circumstances quickly and increasing opportunity.
Braun plans to fuel agricultural innovation by creating an "enterprising state."
"If we want to be the quantum corridor, we need to pick the best ideas that come along," he said. "When you get good at it, that's how you grow a business."
He learned this when he first launched a business "six months before the farm crisis hit full bore back in the fall of '81," he said.
Braun had to become a used truck dealer just to stay in business. But, through this, he developed the largest bumper business line in the nation before bumpers were manufactured as a standard, built-in feature of pickup trucks. That development threw him a different curveball.
"That's when I learned, 'Don't rest on your laurels.' And that's when we started branching not only into the basics but into close to 1,000 different lines," he said.
While on the Jasper County School Board, Braun said he noticed one of the biggest state talent deficits was in trade skills. As governor, he wants to incorporate more emphasis on jobs that will keep talented Hoosier youths in Indiana after high school and increase learning opportunities in trades to grow educational options.
"We've got plenty of good institutions. We want to make sure they are creating degrees, most of them that we need more of are called STEM, and we almost don't need more of any other degrees we produce because then we're shipping our kids out of state to find a job or back into the basement," Braun said. "I want to make sure we get it balanced."
He said there are 130,000 jobs available, and it is imperative to begin teaching and guiding students in various skills in middle school to introduce them to more job opportunities for careers available in-state.
Braun said the way to make Indiana an attractive state to live in comes down to two things: health care and property taxes. He plans to take actions to make healthcare more affordable while increasing healthcare satisfaction. Braun also noted the movements in the Indiana General Assembly on property taxes that are working to lower costs for farmers and other landowners, stating that this will help make the state a more desirable place for people to set down roots.
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