Salaries for new cabinet secretaries under Gov. Mike Braun will be some of the highest in the state — a move the administration said is necessary to attract talent. (Whitney Downard/Indiana Capital Chronicle)
The eight cabinet secretaries serving under Gov. Mike Braun will be some of the highest-paid employees in the state — with each taking home $275,000 for their new positions. Five of the secretaries will also directly lead an agency, though all oversee several agencies under the newly crafted cabinet structure.
Those salaries push total pay for Braun’s top agency leaders to over $1 million more than his predecessor, former Gov. Eric Holcomb. Braun’s number will rise since he hasn’t appointed one key agency head and another doesn’t yet appear on the state’s transparency portal.
The Indiana Capital Chronicle included pay for 20 of the state’s largest agencies, some of which retained their leadership, as well as Braun’s three additional secretaries, who have no equivalent to Holcomb’s administration.
All of the state officials listed make six-figure salaries, ranging from a high of $275,000 to a low of $154,500. Notably, salaries for seven agencies remained the same under both administrations while another two departments fell. Nine agency heads, five of whom are also secretaries, saw pay bumps.
Braun has painted his tenure as one of austerity, directing state agencies to trim their budgets by 5% on average and identify “efficiencies” to save taxpayer dollars.
“Gov. Braun is thrilled to have such highly qualified individuals in these key positions, some of whom have left better-paying jobs to take on these public service leadership roles,” the administration said in a statement. “These leaders have already been instrumental in identifying and cutting wasteful spending in our state government – savings that exceed the cost of their salaries.”
The administration shared that it relied on existing salary range guidance from the Indiana State Personnel Department to calculate secretary pay, which allows for a range from $104,936 to $275,002 annually for agency heads and cabinet secretaries. There are several classifications with correlating salary bands, ranging from food service workers to security or technology officers.
The secretaries are all paid more than Braun, whose salary is tied with that of the state’s Supreme Court Justices, all of whom earn $220,418. Lawmakers opted to increase the governor’s pay — along with several other statewide office holders — in the last budget cycle without public testimony. Holcomb earned $133,684.
The secretaries also get to hire a chief of staff and executive assistant.
General Assembly reaction
Senate Majority Leader Rodric Bray, R-Martinsville, said he’d only recently learned about the salaries, which were published last week. As such, he wasn’t sure how agencies would balance the governor’s directives to reduce their spending with the pay bumps — but said Braun had probably taken staff salaries into consideration.
“I think, obviously, we give Gov. Braun some leeway to put his cabinet together (and) his people together like he feels he needs to,” Bray told the Indiana Capital Chronicle.
Earlier this month, the administration submitted a budget that has agencies collectively cutting state costs by $700 million over the next two years. Some of those have already been identified, including a reduction in public health dollars allocated to local public health departments. Braun also opted not to renew funding for the state’s predominantly Black institution, Martin University.
“We’ll take a look at those and talk to the governor’s office about them and if he feels like he needs to do that to be competitive,” Bray said. “It’s all going to be part of our budget process.”
Rep. Ed DeLaney, an Indianapolis Democrat, was more critical of the salaries, noting that budget leaders have repeatedly warned their colleagues about tight revenues.
“I think the fact that they’re making $50,000 more than the governor tells you … (that) these plums are a little too ripe,” said DeLaney. “… I think those people are all good people, from what I can tell. But I think public service might require a bit more of a sacrifice,” DeLaney said.
He pointed in particular to budget concerns.
“When the budget forecast came out in December, I thought they’d be panicking and screaming that we have no money. Instead, they say, ‘Well, we’re not too bad,’” DeLaney said.
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The state is projected to see only moderate revenue growth in the first half of its two-year budget cycle and almost no growth in year two. Much of that modest growth is expected to be consumed by growing Medicaid costs.
On top of revenue constraints, DeLaney had concerns about slashed federal funding — specifically, questions about whether the Trump administration would cut Medicaid.
Six state employees make more than the new secretaries. Danny Meadows, a psychiatrist at the Logansport State Hospital, is the highest paid state employee at nearly $400,000, followed by other state psychiatrists and neurologists.
The Indiana Transparency Portal doesn’t include employees who are part of the state’s higher education institutions or school corporations, such as athletic coaches with multimillion-dollar salaries.
The Indiana Capital Chronicle analysis included salaries for the following positions:
The Indiana Department of Transportation, the Office of Management and Budget, the Indiana Department of Environmental Management, the Department of Child Services, the Bureau of Motor Vehicles, the Indiana Department of Administration, the Indiana Economic Development Corporation, the Department of Natural Resources, the Department of Revenue, the Department of Correction, the Department of Education, the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Labor.
The following seven agencies had no salary change: the Indiana State Police, the Department of Health, the Family and Social Services Administration, the State Personnel Director, the Professional Licensing Agency, the Department of Workforce Development and the Adjutant General.
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Indiana Capital Chronicle is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Indiana Capital Chronicle maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Niki Kelly for questions: info@indianacapitalchronicle.com.
