This story was written by Whitney Downard. It was originally published by the Indiana Capital Chronicle here: https://indianacapitalchronicl....
Indiana’s next governor has added a layer of management with his incoming cabinet, with just two of the eight members serving as agency heads in addition to their secretarial duties. Other positions in the cabinet include the adjutant general of the Indiana National Guard, the superintendent of the Indiana State Police and the lieutenant governor.
All eight will oversee several agencies and report directly to Gov.-elect Mike Braun. In contrast, Gov. Eric Holcomb had two dozen members in his cabinet, including direct reports from agency heads.
“So much of the inefficiency in government is when it sprawls and you don’t have any real good management structure to it,” Braun said at an Indianapolis steakhouse on Friday.
He likened it to adopting a new technology with a steep up-front cost.
“Sometimes you might be spending a little more on the structure of something — and I don’t view it as this being the case — because I can see how savings are going to immediately flow from it,” Braun said. “… the goal is going to be, as I’ve said many times, to show how you can do more with less. Government always wants to get more done; they want more to do it.
“That’s not the real world. It doesn’t work that way and that’s not called productivity,” Braun continued.
Cabinet members would be “entrepreneurial and accessible,” though Braun didn’t clarify if each would be able to hire their own staff — which could add more government positions. He said each would have “a lot of latitude.”
At the event, Braun assembled nearly every cabinet member — Jennifer-Ruth Green, the incoming public safety secretary, was still on a military assignment — and called the government positions “the most exciting team we’ve had in state government for a long, long time.”
“We’ve reorganized the executive side to make it streamlined so it’s going to emphasize transparency, results (and) accountability,” Braun told reporters.
He recapped his one term in Congress, which culminated in a farewell speech last week, continuing his criticism of the federal government.
“Here you’re going to see, I think, what government’s supposed to be about,” he said.
He also repeated his company’s insurance “fix” to cap premiums in a high-deductible plan for his employees. Health care, he said, would be one of the hardest challenges to address, acknowledging a tight budget in the upcoming session.
He also vowed to collaborate with the state legislature “in a way that’s probably never been done before” and continue to visit all 92 counties regularly.
Braun’s incoming cabinet includes:
- Lisa Hershman, Secretary of Management and Budget and head of the Office of Management and Budget
- Matthew Ubelhor, Secretary of Transportation and Infrastructure
- Katie Jenner, Secretary of Education and head of the Department of Education
- David Adams, Secretary of Commerce
- Mike Speedy, Secretary of Business Affairs
- Jennifer-Ruth Green, Secretary of Public Safety
- Suzanne Jaworowski, Secretary of Energy and Natural Resources
- Gloria Sachdev, Secretary of Health and Family Services
- Anthony Scott, Superintendent of the Indiana State Police
Braun hasn’t yet named an adjutant general.
