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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowNews reports this month from The Indianapolis Star and the Indiana Capital Chronicle have us concerned about state government transparency.
Republican Mike Braun entered the Governor’s Office in January 2025 citing transparency as a key focus of his administration. He was talking then about the need for the state to be more upfront about the work it was doing at the LEAP Research and Innovation District, which the previous administration had created largely in secret.
Braun also launched an audit and investigation aimed at the Indiana Economic Development Corp. and its affiliated organizations — again citing transparency as a concern.
The governor had reasons to raise questions in some of those areas, and certainly, many government observers have long believed the state’s economic development moves are difficult to track.
But the Braun administration has made other moves that raised questions about whether its focus on transparency has waned.
Early this month, the Indiana Office of Technology removed a tool on the state’s main website that allowed the public to look up the names, emails and office phone numbers of people working in state government. The Office of Technology cited security as the reason for removing the tool, saying the Find a Person feature could allow criminals to target state employees with phishing attempts and cyberattacks. It also said use of the tool was lightly used, though we can say with certainty it was a favorite among journalists.
“I don’t want anyone doxed or harassed,” Niki Kelly, executive editor of the Indiana Capital Chronicle, wrote in a recent column. “But these are taxpayer-funded public servants, and Hoosiers deserve to be able to reach them.”
Then last week, the Capital Chronicle’s Mackenzi Klemann reported that the Indiana Office of Inspector General will no longer publish summaries of its investigations into alleged fraud, mismanagement and wrongdoing in state government. Her story explains that state law classifies the reports as confidential, but they can be released if the governor or inspector general determines the information is in the public’s interest.
In the past, the office has done just that when investigations identified government waste or resulted in criminal or ethics charges. But Inspector General Jared Prentice is taking a different approach, saying that making the reports public creates a legal risk. His change “ensures case information is strictly presented publicly before the State Ethics Commission or by a prosecutor to the court so the accused has the opportunity to respond via the appropriate mechanisms of due process,” a spokesperson told the Capital Chronicle.
That news came after Indy Star reported that Indiana’s public access counselor is taking months longer to issue opinions than the office has in the past.
We believe Braun when he says he believes in government transparency. And we think there are ways to serve the public interest while keeping security in mind. Therefore, we hope he’ll take a second look at these decisions and resist temptation to restrict access to additional information that’s now available.•
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