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Diego Morales and Micah Beckwith’s $90K SUVs controversy defined
IndyStar’s politics reporter Hayleigh Colombo explains why $180K price of latest SUVs raised eyebrows on the Statehouse and past.
Indiana’s statewide elected officers and Gov. Mike Braun’s cupboard reported spending greater than $90,000 in state tax {dollars} on journey during the last yr, with journeys all over the place from the favored SXSW convention in Austin, Texas, to President Donald Trump’s Washington, D.C., inauguration, in line with a brand new set of disclosures that state lawmakers required of them for the primary time.
As public scrutiny mounted on the abroad journey of Secretary of State Diego Morales in early 2025, Senate funds writers added language into the state funds to require journey studies every October from state officers, accounting for any journeys they took on official enterprise on the state’s dime.
Among the 19 studies collected from the electeds and the members of Braun’s cupboard, Morales’ journey topped the record, totaling practically $33,000. The interval requested is the state fiscal yr, from July 2024 to June 2025, so Morales and Rokita have bills relationship again to 2024 whereas the newly elected Braun administration’s studies begin in January.
Not each workplace responded to this request in the identical method. Whereas Morales’ report seems to incorporate resort and airfare bills along with floor mileage, Braun’s report lists Washington, D.C., visits with simply the related gasoline mileage to the airport. Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith’s report solely contains month-to-month gasoline totals for his travels across the state and would not record inns or airfare.
Some are very particular with journey descriptions. Others, like Attorney General Todd Rokita, merely label all the pieces as “official business.”
Here’s a short take a look at what every official’s report unveiled.
Gov. Mike Braun’s journey prices
Braun spent about $7,800 on journey prices, largely across the state of Indiana to go to excessive colleges, companies, commuity leaders and numerous occasions.
His two largest bills concerned the usage of the state police helicopter: $4,200 for a visit to northeast Indiana to provide a graduation speech at Trine University, and $750 to fly into the Indy 500.
Braun left the state 4 instances, every time to Washington: for President Donald Trump’s inauguration, a National Governors Association assembly, a White House go to for a “nutrition event,” and a sequence of “meetings with federal agencies and stakeholders” in June.
Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith
Beckwith reported month-to-month readouts of his gasoline prices solely, totaling $4,286 between January and June.
He reported largely in-state occasions all over the place from Gary to Evansville. The reported journeys taken out of state embrace visits to Hillsdale, Mich.; Gainesville, Ga.; Morengo, Ohio; and Lynchburg, Va.
IndyStar has requested however hasn’t acquired further workplace journey information.
Diego Morales
Morales pounded pavement over the 12-month interval, racking up $10,116 in gas bills alone touring to varied counties for conferences and occasions.
State {dollars} additionally paid for 18 journeys out of state, largely to Chicago and D.C., totaling $22,839. Trips to these areas included conferences and conferences with overseas dignitaries ― particularly, the consul generals of India, Kyrgz Republic, Taiwan, South Korea, Turkey, Romania, Japan and Hungary. His most costly journey was to San Jan, Puerto Rico, for the National Association of Secretaries of States convention, costing $4,240.
Morales additionally included two journeys on his report that he says weren’t paid with state cash: his India journey from March, the place he attended the National Association of Software and Service Companies convention, and a visit to Vancouver in September 2024 for a North American Securities Administrators Association Meeting.
The May journey to Hungary, which he has repeatedly referred to as a private journey, is absent, although he took conferences with overseas dignataries whereas there.
Attorney General Todd Rokita
Rokita listed 100 journeys on his report, however solely 15 of them had an related value to taxpayers, totaling $4,650.
Most of that complete comes from his two journeys to D.C., as soon as in September 2024 and as soon as in March 2025.
Comptroller Elise Nieshalla
Nieshalla’s journey prices totaled $11,916, however a few of the most costly journeys on that record ― a $1,500 journey to Charlotte for a National Association of State Auditors, Comptrollers and Treasurers convention; the $750 State Financial Officers Foundation convention in Arkansas; and the $750 National Association of State Comptrollers convention in Denver ― weren’t paid with state cash.
That brings her state-funded complete right down to $8,698, comprising many visits to county auditors across the state.
Treasurer Daniel Elliott
Elliott’s journey bills during the last yr totaled practically $9,300. His state-funded journey included journeys throughout Indiana in addition to conferences and occasions in Washington, D.C., Orlando, Fla., Scottsdale, Ariz. and Oklahoma City.
The largest expense, greater than $1,400, was for a go to to Washington D.C. throughout the timeframe of President Donald Trump’s inauguration.
Braun’s cupboard
Altogether, Braun’s cupboard reported spending a mixed practically $24,500 in state {dollars} on their journey bills. Here’s the way it breaks down:
Education Secretary Katie Jenner: Reported spending about $7,200 on numerous conferences and journeys, together with representing the state at conferences in San Diego, D.C., and Austin, Texas.
Former Indiana State Police Superintendent Doug Carter: Reported spending greater than $5,300 on three journeys in late 2024 together with to Boston and Quantico, Va. Carter retired in January.
Secretary of Energy and Natural Resources Suzanne Jaworowski: Reported spending greater than $4,900 on journeys together with assembly with the U.S. Department of Energy and White House in Washington.
Former Secretary of Public Safety Jennifer-Ruth Green: Reported about $3,200 in bills, together with two journeys to D.C. Green resigned in September within the wake of an ethics investigation.
Secretary of Transportation and Infrastructure Matthew Ubelhor: Reported about $2,200 in bills, together with a visit to satisfy U.S. Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy in Washington.
Secretary of Commerce David Adams: Reported spending about $1,000 on numerous bills related to an workplace listening tour and a groundbreaking.
Indiana State Police Superintendent Anthony Scott: Reported spending lower than $600 on three in-state journeys.
Secretary of Health and Family Services Gloria Sachdev: Reported simply $72.79 in complete bills at a Health and Human Services secretaries assembly in Washington.
Chief of workers Josh Kelley, Office of Management and Budget Secretary Lisa Hershman, Secretary of Business Affairs Mike Speedy, and Adjutant Generals Lawrence Muennich and Roger Dale Lyles had no state-funded journey to report.
Contact state authorities and politics reporter Kayla Dwyer at [email protected].
Contact senior authorities accountability reporter Hayleigh Colombo at [email protected].
Sign up for our free weekly politics e-newsletter,Checks & Balances, curated by IndyStar political and authorities reporters.
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