Gov. Mike Braun on reshaping Indiana government, crime abatement, Jimmy Kimmel, more

Indiana Governor Mike Braun popped on WHAS Radio with Terry Meiners to discuss his administration's reshaping of state government, crime abatement, gerrymandering, tariffs, negotiating for businesses against Kentucky, and the Jimmy Kimmel suspension.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Okay, we're going to bring in Governor Mike Braun. We'll
get back to that topic, maybe bringing up with him
to Hey, Governor, welcome back on. It's Terry Miners.

Speaker 2 (00:07):
Hey, Terry, good to be back on.

Speaker 1 (00:09):
You were here with us a couple of years, got it?
How many years ago you were Senator Braun? Then are
you wearing a blue shirt right now? One of those
dress shirts?

Speaker 2 (00:18):
You know? In fact, I am with my sleeves rolled
up and it's got the Indiana insignia on it. So, yeah,
that's about the And I've eliminated four hundred and twenty
plane trips over those six six years. How about that?

Speaker 1 (00:35):
Good for you? Yeah, life's a little different when you're
hanging back home again in Indiana. As the song goes, Okay,
I know you've been in for so many months now,
and then you've signed a lot of executive orders. Let's
just go to the scoreboard. Governor, how do you feel
about what's happened from your eos and how far down
the path are you and getting all them fully realized?

Speaker 2 (00:56):
So the first thing I did, Terry was it was
a sprawling enterprise of sixty to seventy agencies that seemed
to be like the inmates running the asylum in state
government that got bloated with all the money that was
pumped borrowed one hundred percent through the Cares Act, and
many state governments, local governments, and school districts did things

(01:18):
that weren't sustainable after that, and found out in our
own state it had that as well. There was a
big property tax dust up that we had to fix
them to lower the burden on homeowners last year. But
I reorganized state government into eight policy silos and made

(01:40):
sure I had private sector experience where they've worked in
the real world, along with some government experience to run
these agencies. So I want our own employees to tell
us what to do to run it better, talk to constituents,
kind of like you'd run a business. So these executive
orders that we put in place actually set the stage

(02:02):
for that. It's been working well. We got hit with
an austere budget forecast based upon tariffs. You can see
all that dissipated into the wind, so we're already cash
flowing a lot better than we were expected to. And
we've been around about eight or nine months. It's been
going well.

Speaker 1 (02:20):
So Governor bram was that fear mongering about the tariff warnings.
Did you feel like that was coming from one side
of the aisle and then it was all empty rhetoric
because you know, you're talking about the rubber on the
road here, the actuality of not seeing a pushback from tariffs.

Speaker 2 (02:39):
No, and I knew that because I came from the
world of running a business and tariffs. You got to
remember impact mostly other countries. We are not a trading economy.
Most of them are, and it was done to where
we were subsidizing their economies. They needed to be right

(02:59):
sized and made reciprocal. And that's what's been happening.

Speaker 1 (03:03):
What's going on in terms of you know, like here
in Kentucky, we're always trying to attract the various factories,
you know, the car parts suppliers, those types of folks.
Will you you do that in Indiana as well. Is
Indiana's growth in terms of manufacturing on an uptick now
or is it holding steady.

Speaker 2 (03:25):
And has had the blessing that we're the second or
we're the largest manufacturing state per capita, and we wrestle
with that Wisconsin on that challenge. But our manufacturing economy
it's been always strong I'm trying to fertilize the field
of smaller manufacturers as supposed to reeling in the really

(03:48):
big ones that cost a fortune that everybody's going after.
And I'm trying to make sure that the development is
done in a regional way, just not in some parts
of the state. So all of that is working well,
and then they're really best paying jobs generally come around

(04:08):
biosciences and technology. And I'm trying to get our own
education system to where it's creating degrees that are marketable
and pay high wages, and then really put a lot
of emphasis on workforce as well.

Speaker 1 (04:24):
Inde were speaking with Indiana's Governor Mike Brown. You did
make some headlines when someone brought up the topic of
Jerry manderin, so we know this is going on in
various states around America of people redrawing lines. You alluded
to something to the effect that if you don't follow
what the Trump administration wants, that you feel like they

(04:46):
might put an economic squeeze on Indiana.

Speaker 2 (04:49):
No. I think that we get along with them very well,
and we're the first state they generally look to on
because they can see we're out in front of them
often on education healthcare, all the things that their interest in,
we are as well. I don't want to put that
in jeopardy. And you saw what Texas did. Missouri's about

(05:13):
ready to do it. And Terry. This is mostly because
you're hearing the cry from blue states. They're so gerrymandered.
They can't gerrymander anymore. Massachusetts same size as Indiana population wise,
nine congressional districts, nine Democratic congressman. So we're doing to

(05:35):
catch up. And if you want policies that take us
away from the Green New Deal, growing government at the
expense of the real economy, we need people in there
that give a little balance towards downsizing the federal government
and enabling the private sector. That's what happens if we
get our fair share of representation district drawn. No different

(06:01):
than what Democrats have done in every state.

Speaker 1 (06:05):
I've asked previous Indiana governors this question about the over
in Indiana you have casino gambling. Well, things have changed
a little over the years. So I just want to
put it to you in general terms, Governor Braun, when
you are talking with a business you are trying to
woo to Indiana, and Kentucky is one of the contenders.

(06:25):
What can you say to them the company to dismiss Kentucky.

Speaker 2 (06:32):
Well, we have got the second lowest income tax rate
of any state that charges one. We are in the
top five in terms of being a business friendly environment.
And you look at the seven or eight categories of
why you'd want to raise a family build a business,

(06:53):
We're going to be in the top ten of almost
every one of them. I know what i'd say talking
about my neighbor to the west, Illinois. I know what
i'd say talking about my neighbor to the north, Michigan,
and even Ohio, Kentucky. You know, I have a little
more probably sympathy for that state because I'm from southern

(07:16):
Indiana and we kind of roll in a similar fashion.
That doesn't mean your state is going to be in
the place where it's going to be as attractive. Indiana
is lucky. The reason we're the number one manufacturing state
per capita. We are in the sweet spot of the
US economy. That triangle between Indy, Louisville and Evansville. You

(07:39):
can reach more commerce and two days of ground transportation
than anywhere else in the country. Kentucky's not too far
from it, so it you know benefits as well, and
as you know, they'd have to look to see if
their stats aren't as good. It's basically, how do you
regulate what are your tax and then is it a

(08:01):
place people want to move into to raise a family.
And those are the three major things that end up
growing your economy, bringing your own kids back to where
they were born.

Speaker 1 (08:12):
Yeah, it's funny when you mentioned those states surrounding you.
I thought you were going to get into a football
thing because the Indiana team's a whole lot better than
they used to be.

Speaker 2 (08:21):
Well, that's the understatement of the day.

Speaker 1 (08:24):
So also a crime abatement Governor, you know here we
have to talk about it with Governor Vasher and Mayor
Greenberg here in Lieuisland and other spots. Indianapolis has its
issues as well. A lot of people say, just because
these interstates are blowing through that somehow becomes a route
from Chicago to Atlanta whatever it happens to be. But
it touches both of our states, in Louisviland and Indianapolis.

(08:47):
What are you putting in place to try and push
criminals away from who's your land?

Speaker 2 (08:54):
Well, we had to shootout at the OK Corral on
the fourth of July weekend and two kids were killed
and it was right down around Monument Circle middle of
the city. I had to send the Indiana State Police
in because the Indianapolis Police Department needed help. I did
it again about three weeks later because of the WNBA.

(09:14):
I didn't want to be on one of our biggest
weekends have another scene like that breakout. So cities that
used to be run by Republicans, which is Indianapolis, hasn't
been for now nine or ten years. We got to
get back to what ails them. And when you look
at places that have been run by blue mayres for

(09:38):
a long time, I mean, look at a place like
San Francisco. Can't imagine how you can go so far
in the wrong direction. It's not like mostly it's about
I think the urban area that allows stuff, whether it's
run by a blue mayor or a red mayor, there
are challenges there that are different from rural areas. But

(10:01):
when you're wanting to be a sanctuary city, meaning that
you believe in open borders, and you're letting folks that
cross into the country illegally many times protecting people to
commit a crime, again, you need to do some soul searching.
Indianapolis is at the point where we won't let that
go any further. We're going to be helpful, especially when

(10:23):
law enforcement's asking for help. I highlight prosecutors and mayors,
mayors that are doing things that aren't stern enough to
fix the issues, and prosecutors that aren't doing their job
when their own police departments are doing their job. Something's
got to change in the dynamic, and Indiana is going

(10:44):
to be a place that won't let Indianapolis go the
way of a San Francisco.

Speaker 1 (10:50):
We had the same discussion here in Louisville about whether
to put a state police post here, and the candidates
for mayor were all in on it, and then once
the mayor was elected in the state police and the
gore like, well, maybe we shouldn't are more badges. Isn't
that the solution to lessening crime in areas more law
enforcement officers.

Speaker 2 (11:11):
No doubt about it. In cities the ones that have
really taken this to the limit, Remember defunding police, How
do you think that was going to work? That would
have been? That was such a crazy idea, And like
an Andy Basher, you know, he's in a party that
regardless of how well you run your state. Remember, Joe

(11:34):
Manchin and Kirsten Cinema were the only two moderates left
in the US Senate. I served with both of them.
They are gone now. So look at the cast of
characters that are in that party that believe we should
borrow and spend more and take some of these crazy
policies and double down on them. I think Trump's victory

(11:57):
winning all seven swing states was a strong statement on
that approach.

Speaker 1 (12:04):
All right, Governor Brun, last thing for you. Jimmy Kimmel's
show was canceled. You've heard all this stuff about yeah,
people squelching voices and so forth. Here we are, you
have unfettered time on my FCC operated radio station here
in Louisville. What if someone decides, well, maybe we just
want Republicans to speak on radio stations around America because say,

(12:29):
for instance, Andy Basheer has said something about Charlie Kirk
a year ago. People keep showing the tweet. It just
said he that he was divisive. What if I mean
is have we gone over the line now with this
pushing Jimmy Kimmel off TV?

Speaker 2 (12:45):
You know, I think it's the irony of life when
you see Charlie what he was about. He would go
into the most caustic, you know, places, and he always listened.
He never did the stuff that all of us confront
like in town halls recently, and most of the town

(13:05):
halls and Republicans go to are attended by Democrats that
want to shout you down. You're going to have to
have a thick skin in this business. Number one. You're
gonna have to be able to put up with stuff.
If it's to the point where it incites violence, that's
probably where you cross the line. And that should be
the rule generally, whether you're coming from the left or

(13:28):
the right. It gets very difficult, very tricky when you're
trying to be a little more proactive on screening things
that you like to hear. The sound of that gets
into choppy waters, tricky territory, so be careful with that.
Jimmy Kimmel, Jimmy Kimmell obviously was probably going off the

(13:51):
air anyway because he pushed a very progressive agenda. Whether
he should have been taken down, that's where you're starting
to actually get into the irony of what Charlie Kirk
was about. I don't think he would have probably been
for that.

Speaker 1 (14:06):
No. No, the FCC does rule radio and TV stations,
but people can stream whatever they want online. Yeah, so
that's the difference is these are the public owns the
airways versus a private company streaming shows. I get all that.
It's just a matter of whether you're nervous about voices
being squelched.

Speaker 2 (14:27):
No, I'm not, because that would be impossible to do
in a day where there's so many different forms of media.
But when you do start trying to regulate stuff that
is so a fancy if you don't want to hear it,
I say, the line you draw is if it goes
the next step to inciting violence. I think most people
would agree with that.

Speaker 1 (14:46):
Governor Braun, great chatting with you again. Next time you're
over in Kentucky. Let's get an ice cream and have
another chat.

Speaker 2 (14:52):
We'll do it. Thank you, Terry, you bet him.

Speaker 1 (14:54):
Indiana Governor Mike Braun live from the Hoosier State Back
in a minute on news radio eight forty whas