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: We're hearing about the blue wave ... in Indiana, is this a referendum on Governor Braun, or President Trump or a combination of both?
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Sakbun: I do think it's a mix. We didn't have a Senate race or a governor race at the top of the ticket. We had Secretary of State, our treasurer, our state comptroller, and some congressional races. So if voters were frustrated with the president, they had a few opportunities to show that with these congressional races, but the bulk of the races on the ballot were actually tied to state government, and I think a lot of Hoosiers in different counties and different portions of the state have different thoughts on the governor. Right?
I do think it's eye-opening for the governor's administration, just like it is the presidential administration. And look, I look forward to the opportunity to work with Governor Braun to work with the incoming Speaker of the House, and to work with anyone who has any sort of influence on state politics, regardless if you wear that red jersey or blue jersey, the people of Terre Haute deserve to see projects.
Hren: some of the news is that ending the supermajority of Republicans in the state house gives Democrats a bigger seat at the table. In an interview with Marjorie Hershey on Indiana News Desk this week, she said this creates more democracy. So, what are you hoping to see at the state house this year?
Sakbun: I'm hoping to see committee assignments that make sense. I think the harsh reality, and for the listeners who didn't realize this, for the last 14 years, every single Democrat state representative could have not shown up to work, and the Republicans still could have passed whatever bill they wanted to.
Now people have to do something that we should have always been looking to do, and that's compromise. Right? I compromise all the time with my wife, with my kids, with work, with the military, balancing. The best type of government is not you know a New York City type where all the Democrats have power, or what used to be in Indiana, where all Republicans have power. Look, I'm very clear here. Super majorities are bad.
This is a budget year, so in the Senate and the House, they're going to have a lot of conversations around what the governor's budget will look like for the next two years. As a reminder, mayors work with their councils to pass a budget every year. Each governor in a four-year term has two opportunities to craft a statewide budget over four years.
So this is the governor's second opportunity to look at the revenue, to look at expenses, and say, okay, what are we doing to address the rising cost of childcare? To address a housing shortage that is plaguing so many counties in our great state. What can we do to make sure that the next generation of Hoosier workers are prepared and ready for the workforce? And what can we do to help our seniors out who have given so much to communities for decades?
Hren: I believe you announced the 2027 paving plan. How do you prioritize streets and then follow those funding mechanisms you were just talking about?
Sakbun: Yeah, you have some communities that will say, "Hey, we got to use the streets that have the most traffic," and that is a commonsense approach. I'm not going to knock that. The approach that I take is you have to do your worst rated streets first. And we rate our streets on a scale of one to five. Now, when you do that, you get into neighborhoods or some side streets that haven't been paved in decades.
So we are doing about four to $4.1 million next year. I think when it's all said and done, current estimates are looking like $3.9. But we're looking at shifting even more when it comes to street and road paving. And it's it's always a hard conversation. So many residents will ask the right question, but what about me? And you have to be able to answer them. Say, hey, look, you're on schedule for 2029, or you're on schedule for 2030, or 2028.
Hren: On a social media post, you said, "What an exciting day at the Terre Haute Regional Airport!" For years, we have advocated for the airport to be part of the nation's first wave of drone testing corridors. You also continued. "The sad reality is that warfare continues to evolve and has become more deadly."
I'm sure you want, as every city wants, economic development. But maybe the second part of that is, but at what cost? Do you feel that from some of your constituents?
Sakbun: Yeah, that's an interesting question. What I feel for my constituents is, for the United States of America to continue to be the nation's strongest military, we have to see and analyze and research and design different types of drone unmanned aerial assets to fight.
If you look at what's happening in Ukraine and Russia, almost half a million Russian soldiers have died in this war, and that's more than what Americans lost in World War II, according to some estimates. So what we need to do is say, hey, with all this new technology that Russia is showing on the battlefield, that Iran is using to strike Americans now. How can we be prepared for the nation's next big war?
Yyou can choose to say, "Well, I don't want to get involved in that." Okay, but someone has to. Someone has to use an airport for research, design, and manufacturing at scale, so our military is prepared. And you know, just choosing to not be a part of this conversation is shutting the door on economic development opportunities. Frankly, I'd rather be involved in the drone research conversation than a data center conversation.
I'd rather say, hey, we're going to work with the private sector and public sector because there's a lot of civilian applications to drones. They're used in farming and agriculture over and over and over again, and so we're going to do what we can when it comes to research here in the state of Indiana, here in the Midwest.
Hren: You had an event with Athletic Village to unveil a Bobby Moore street sign at 13th Street and Locust Street. Can tell us a little bit about that?
Sakbun: Bobby Moore has been running our Boys and Girls Club for decades, and they did move to the Chauncey Rose or Old Gershmeyer School. The school corporation and the Boys and Girls Club decided to move on from that property, and a developer bought it and has turned it into a large amount of homes.
But he did want to put a street sign there to remember the impact that Bobby Moore has had on so many young men and young women in our community, and so I love street sign unveilings. It's an opportunity to publicly recognize someone and a guy like Bobby. He wants zero credit for the work that he's done, but as a community, we have to say thank you.
