Commentary: Travel reports provide needed window of transparency but could be improved

For the second year, statewide elected officials and top agency leaders in Gov. Mike Braun’s administration filed reports detailing their travel in the past year.

We tallied up the days and cost of the trips and overall it was minor — about $132,000. Which is just as important as if it had been $1.3 million. It shows restraint and responsibility on their behalf.

Either way, the point is transparency and I applaud lawmakers for instituting these reports in 2025.

All the officials regularly travel in-state to various constituent events, meetings and conferences. So, we focused more directly on out-of-state travel. Here are some of the findings we reported:

– Braun hardly leaves the state. He had only one reported trip outside Indiana and it was paid by campaign dollars because he was attending a Republican Governors Association meeting in Washington, D.C.

– Attorney General Todd Rokita goes to the nation’s capital a lot. He listed seven trips to Washington, D.C. in a year’s time. Two visits listed no state expenses, while the other five totaled nearly $3,400.

– Energy and Natural Resources Secretary Suzanne Jaworowski was high on the list for spending at about $25,000. She accounted for about 62% of the $40,460 in expenses listed by Braun’s cabinet. Her largest expense was $8,283.97 for an April 20-May 1 visit to Seoul and Busan in South Korea.

– Education Secretary Katie Jenner reported substantially less spending — $5,815.78 — but listed more dated travel-related events than any other cabinet secretary. Her report contained 22 out-of-state activities. Those out-of-state entries covered 41 distinct calendar dates, including 39 weekdays.

I do think there is room for improvement in this process, though, starting with a uniform spreadsheet. Each individual approaches the report differently and there in no consistency in format or information.

Some simply list the city they went to with no accompanying information. I went through social media posts to try to create some context to the entries. That’s how we tied Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith’s D.C. trip to a White House Christmas party and several of Rokita’s trips to events involving transgender topics.

I understand some discretion is needed in these, but a basic explanation is necessary. It could say the person spoke at a community’s Rotary meeting, attended a business opening, met with constituents etc.

Some officials also listed trips paid for by sponsoring organizations without disclosing those amounts or sometimes who paid. That information is very important given the quid-pro-quo possibilities in government.

Management and Budget Secretary Lisa Hershman listed 37 travel entries, including a Texas meeting, but supplied no numeric expenses. Business Affairs Secretary Mike Speedy likewise listed no numeric costs for 19 travel entries.

I’d like to give a shout out to Comptroller Elise Nieshalla for the best report. She provided a specific location, dates, purpose, expenses and fund for every single item. That included meeting with specific mayors, a tour of the CANDLES Holocaust museum, recording a podcast, attending an Association of Indiana Counties conference and stopping at the Seymour Tribune.

Everyone should be more like Elise.