Governor Mike Braun held an invitation-only roundtable to discuss his property tax relief agenda in Madison County on Friday. Braun continues to stress that he wants broad tax relief, despite how much it’s expected to cost local governments and schools.

Braun has threatened to veto a Senate version of his original plan that was scaled back to focus on savings for older Hoosiers, disabled veterans and first-time homebuyers.

On Friday, when asked what a tax relief plan had to have in it for him to support the measure, Braun said,“Get it back to where everybody was getting some kind of tax break.”

He also said he wants local governments and schools to be able to cover their “legitimate costs,” while also capping taxes for the future.

The non-partisan Legislative Services Agency says cities and counties could lose billions of dollars a year under Braun’s original plan, and some have spoken out about how they’ll have to cut services or employees.

The governor dismissed those fears and said he’d love to take a look at local budgets to make them more efficient.

“You’re not going to outfox me or maneuver me,” Braun said. “This is what I did for a living and I know the government side of it, too.”

Among the roundtable participants invited by Braun’s office was Nickolas Freeman, who brought with him his tax bill. It showed his property tax had more than doubled between 2022 and 2023.

Freeman said that while he can afford it for now, he is concerned for his neighbors.

“I have a mix of neighbors. For renters, if the property tax is increased, that gets passed on to them in a rent increase, which means they may not be able to afford that home anymore,” Freeman said. “And for retirees who may be on fixed income or pensions, they don’t have that flexibility.”

The second half of the legislative session begins March 3.

Thomas Ouellette is our reporter and producer. Contact him at thomas.ouellette@bsu.edu