Editorial: A handful of priorities to suggest as Braun administration gets set

Congratulations to Republican Mike Braun for his victory in the Indiana governor’s race.

Braun ran on a promise that he would use his business acumen to attack the state’s challenges and, as IBJ’s Cate Charron reports on page 4A, has already launched a transition team that will evaluate state agencies and further develop policy proposals.

As that process gets underway, IBJ has a few focus areas to suggest.

◗ Prepare Hoosiers kids for careers and life. Thousands of Indiana students advance through elementary school each year without strong reading skills. And thousands more graduate from high school unprepared for college or the workforce. Fixing these problems must be a priority for the Braun administration.

Some of the work in this area—such as retooling the state’s high school diploma requirements, strengthening retention policies in early grades and investing more in workforce training—is underway and should continue to be priorities. But we’d like to see the new governor invest as well in apprenticeship programs that pair students with employers early in their high school careers and efforts to encourage more students to go to college.

◗ Develop a future-focused energy plan. Artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies have increased demand for the nation’s power supply just as energy companies are trying to find ways to produce electricity in more environmentally friendly ways. The result could be a gap in supply and demand. It’s a challenge we’d like to see Braun attack head-on—and without getting caught up in the politics of energy.

Indiana needs a transparent, well-thought-out and likely all-of-the-above strategy for energy production, especially as the state continues to try to attract power-hungry data centers as an economic development strategy.

◗ Increase foreign investment in Indiana. Outgoing Gov. Eric Holcomb has made international trade missions a priority—and with good reason. Of the $29 billion in capital investments the Indiana Economic Development Corp. secured in 2023, some $20.6 billion came from foreign-owned companies. And some of Indiana’s biggest and most important employers are based overseas, including Toyota, Rolls-Royce, Subaru, Honda and Roche. We’d like to see the governor-elect continue the emphasis on bringing companies and jobs from around the globe to Indiana, particularly in the areas of technology and manufacturing.

◗ Invest in another round of READI. Holcomb launched the Regional Economic Acceleration and Development Initiative—or READI—in 2021 with $500 million in grants for regional projects aimed at placemaking and quality-of-life initiatives. READI 2.0 has provided another $500 million in state funding for new projects, plus $250 million provided by the Lilly Endowment for arts-related initiatives. READI has been much more than an infrastructure program. It has required communities to work together to develop regional plans, opening new opportunities and collaboration. And it has attracted outside investments that are expected to total $2 billion. It’s a great program that deserves another round of funding—although we’d expect a new governor to put his own spin on the effort.

Good luck to Gov.-elect Braun and his team. Indiana is counting on you to be thoughtful and bold.•

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