In this week’s installment of Ask The Mayor, Terre Haute Mayor Brandon Sakbun addresses this issue and more at City Hall. Listen to the full conversation with Indiana Newsdesk anchor Joe Hren by clicking on the play button above or read some of the questions and answers below. A portion of this segment airs 6:45 and 8:45 a.m. Wednesday on WFIU. Here are some highlights.
This conversation has been edited for clarity and conciseness.
Hren: Many story lines in the primary election, but the one we've been talking about is the six of the eight incumbents targeted by Trump and his allies were defeated in Tuesday's primary. The question that we're grappling with, is this the $13 million that was pumped into election campaigns, or is this vengeance from angry voters across Indiana?
Sakbun: I think it's a little bit of both. To get specific, if you look at some of the incumbents that lost, let's identify Jim Buck, for example. We've really debated, we've had good conversations. But he was there for a while, and what we also saw around the state with 16 incumbent county commissioners lose their races, dozens of county council incumbents lose their races.
I know some of our statewide officials were bragging that this is the President Trump effect, but I caution them and say, well, let's look in the mirror here and say, was this a referendum of incumbents in power? What are we seeing across the state of Indiana? We're seeing anger and frustration around the assessments, around data centers, around a failure to invest in schools with 100 school referendums on the ballot.
You put in $13 and a half million, and a lot of that anger will come to fruition. A lot of folks talk about redistricting, and still they talk about redistricting. What I want to talk about is we shouldn't have to waive the gas tax because gas has gotten over $5 a gallon. We shouldn't have to have conversations around affordability. We should be passing public policies that prevent things like electricity, water and taxes, to an extent from being unaffordable. It is unaffordable to achieve the American dream right now in the state of Indiana.
They should pause, look in the mirror and say, what are we doing so poorly, that only 20% of Hoosiers showed up to the ballot box.
Hren: It sounds like the primary voting in Vigo County was higher than in recent years, and people picking up Democratic ballots was the highest it's been in in years.
Sakbun: It sends a clear message that the party is starting to actually connect with voters. But let me preface it with this. Two years ago, there was not a ton on the Democratic primary ballot, so voting went down.
What I think is interesting is the number of Republican voters from two years ago to now, pretty much stayed flat, hardly any growth. So if we're going to have state senate candidates spending millions of dollars, and that number doesn't increase, that's a good sign for us and for Democrats to actually take advantage of some of these electoral election scenarios.
What we need to do is send a very clear message to voters, how can we help with affordability? How can we help make your life better? I understand that the political right does an excellent job of always cancel culture issues making you mad at your neighbor, at your family, so we got to be the party who's the bigger person here and stands up and says, here are pro-growth policies, to grow our community, to increase the population, to increase the wage, to support public safety, to support public education.
Hren: The governor struck down the sales tax and the gas tax to keep some of the gas prices down. But I don't know if anyone is asking how the state is going to pay for road construction or road grants?
Sakbun: I do think the Budget Committee at the Senate level is going to have some work to do. We do have a budget surplus, so maybe there's a conversation to move those dollars there. The governor is reacting to the international situation caused by the President's war in the country of Iran.
I understand the governor needs to react for our constituents to feel a little bit of relief. So to be honest, I'm happy he's doing that. I would like to hear a plan of how we're going to keep road funding active and paid to municipalities so we can continue to pave streets. However, this is a new situation. I'm sure he's hard at work at it.
I've already sent him some feedback and ideas, and I surely hope he reads it, but we'll give him time to come up with an alternative plan to keep things funded.
Hren: It was interesting hearing Mayor Kerry Thompson in Bloomington talk about a new city led neighborhood project. It was the former hospital site now affordable housing and targeting college graduates. Smaller homes on smaller lots. She hopes it's a model for what's to come. What's your thought on retaining college graduates in terms of affordable housing?
Sakbun: So first and foremost, we need to understand that smaller setbacks and smaller housing is the model that we need to slowly embrace, because, frankly, housing prices are too high for young Hoosiers.
I just finished a letter to the editor for the Tribune-Star, and the theme of this letter is, give Indiana a chance. We might not be your first decision after college but maybe come back after a couple of years to raise your family here. Frankly, the state of Indiana is really struggling with this.
We do an excellent job of bringing folks to this state for college, but we also do a very poor job at keeping college graduates after just five years in this brain drain exodus. We need clear public policies to stop this. All the surveys show they care about quality of life, quality of place. So invest in quality of life and quality of place that's parks, that's housing, that's opportunities to shop, dine and drink.
Invest in workforce development and recruit companies who, when they come to Indiana, they meet with our university presidents, and we create a pipeline from the classroom to employment.
I love how Indiana State and Ivy Tech team connect with local employers and work to fill their job demands. I always demand more of them, and they always find a way to really produce college graduates that can work in the state of Indiana. There's a ton of room for improvement, but they acknowledge it, and they're working on it. What I would like to see is a statewide strategy.
I get very concerned, because over the next 13 years, the state of Indiana has been put on notice. The birth rate has substantially declined, so to continue to meet the workforce needs of the companies we already have today, we need to fix our narrative. We need to recruit more families to come to the state of Indiana. We need to make it easier and, frankly, cheaper to raise a kid in the state of Indiana, so that way these families can come, they can learn, they can grow, and they can work jobs in the Hoosier state.
Hren: I see you have a new program. It's a monthly cleanup drop off program. You want to explain that and who's eligible?
Sakbun: Folks who are in our sanitary district, folks who get a sewage bill, can come to one of our second Saturday cleanups. We do it over at the street department. We get some dumpsters. It's been successful so far, and we're going to keep doing it until August. We got to find ways to pick up trash, fill potholes and make sure that it's visually appealing and this is one of the opportunities that we found, we identified and we funded, and we look forward to continuing to clean up our streets.
