House Democrats support a couple of things in Braun’s budget. He wants to put an end to the IEDC’s blank check by not re-upping the $500 million they received in the 2023 budget and eliminating two of their other fund. Braun also intends to fully fund the Mediciad forecast and provide money for the 76,000 children on the waitlist for the Child Care Development Fund (CCDF).
However, a majority of the budget makes massive cuts to programs Hoosiers desperately need. Here’s a breakdown of some of Braun’s cuts:
-
Cuts for Public Schools: The proposal is only $9 billion, giving our schools close to a 2% increase. However, there’s no guarantee that the money will go to public schools; some could potentially go to the voucher program. Currently, the public schools in House District 26 would receive a cut for the next two years under this budget.
-
Universal Vouchers: Removes the income threshold for the Choice Scholarship Program. This means families in any tax bracket, including millionaires, would be able to use taxpayer money for their child's school tuition. There’s also no guarantee that tax dollars used for private school vouchers go toward local private schools. West Lafayette taxpayers could be footing the bill for a private school in Indianapolis or Fort Wayne that has no impact on our community.
-
Cuts Public Health Grants: Cuts $50 million yearly from the Health First Indiana Program. This funding was distributed to 92 of Indiana’s counties, using the grants to improve their community’s health outcomes. Indiana is ranked as one of the unhealthiest states. This funding was used to improve many factors affecting health, including a high infant and maternal mortality rate.
-
Defunds or Eliminates Vital Commissions: Eliminates the Indiana Commission for Women (ICW), and the Indiana Native American Indian Affairs Commission (INAIAC) and cuts the funding for the Indiana Civil Rights Commission (ICRC) by close to $750,000.
-
State Agencies: Braun wants to cut spending for all state agencies by 5%.
-
Cuts READI: Will not provide funding for READI. READI provided matching grants to local communities for development projects including increasing available housing, building new bridges and roads or supporting small businesses.
-
Social Services: Flat funds the CHOICE program, which helps the elderly and disabled stay in their homes. Flat funds some of Indiana’s food banks.
Gov. Braun also proposed his ideas for tax relief, including additional tax holidays, halting taxes on retirement income, and a property tax relief proposal. Hoosiers desperately need tax relief, but these proposals would drastically affect the budgets of state and local governments. These tax deductions would cut close to $696 million from our revenue, while Braun’s property tax plan would cost local governments close to $2.6 billion over two years. Tax relief must be balanced with the needs of our local governments.