State Comptroller Elise Nieshalla joins!

Brian Alvey (0:06)

You're listening to The Hammer and Nigel Show.

Jason Hammer (0:09)

And we're having a good time today. I'm Jason Hammer.

Big Nige is out. Brian Alvey, part of those ash holes filling in. Great podcast about cigars and drinks and politics and all things in.

Brian Alvey (0:25)

Oh, dude, we get into everything we talk. We bring in professional fighters. We talk about it. If it's entertaining and Jared, I can wax semi eloquent on it.

We've got it on.

Jason Hammer (0:37)

We also talk a little bit about where your money is going around here and joining us in studio Elise Nieshalla. She is the state comp troller. Now, if that title sounds a little new, correct me if I'm wrong, at least. But a couple of years ago, you were known as the auditor. This position was known as the auditor. But it was changed to the comptroller. Is that correct?

Elise Nieshalla (0:59)

That's exactly right, because the state board of accounts does the auditing for Indiana. And the legislature felt like comptroller was a better name for us.

Brian Alvey (1:09)

Auditor sounds mean anyway.

Jason Hammer (1:11)

Right, right. Like, I like the comptroller. I don't like the auditor. You know, it's totally the same person.

Let's do a little 101 here. What do you do? Like, I don't want to be like the office space bobs here and say, what would you say you do here? But what is the role of the comptroller?

Elise Nieshalla (1:29)

We handle the accounting and the reporting of the state's money. We also handle payroll. We pay the state's bills. We distribute taxes that are collected by the Department of Revenue to get out to where they need to go to get to work. So to our school districts, our counties, our cities and towns, and of course, to the state agencies as well. And we also administer the state's transparency portal and the new Fed, which we're real excited about, putting the bright sunlight of transparency on all the billions of federal dollars coming to the state of Indiana. Okay.

Jason Hammer (2:01)

Transparency is key. And we'll get back to that here in just a moment. And I know this is a loaded question, and we only have a limited amount of time here, but where is my money going? Like, I feel like you're the one to answer this question. When I spend a bunch of money, whether it's at a restaurant, whether it's on sports betting, whether it's for anything, if a firework stands at 4th of July, where's my money going?

Brian Alvey (2:24)

Beer, hot dogs.

Elise Nieshalla (2:26)

We like to call the work that we do with the accounting, impact accounting, because the amount of impact that the state dollars have, you can see it everywhere, whether it's the roads, the bridges, the highways, the corrections system, and of course, our schools. Half of the money goes to schools.

Jason Hammer (2:45)

Then why do they always ask for referendums, Elise? Because I live in the district where it feels like every four years, the school district puts out a picture of a kid in crutches with a black eye in a wheelchair that says, little Jimmy here, little tiny Tim is going to go hungry and die if you don't pay this extra tax money to the schools.

Elise Nieshalla (3:06)

Well, we know that discussion is being had across communities throughout Indiana. It'll be interesting to see the outcomes.

Brian Alvey (3:13)

I've said for years, I feel like over half our budget every year goes to education. Correct? I mean, that's a safe guesstimation number, right? It's a little bit more, especially if you add in, you know, like collegiate level, it's significant anymore.

Elise Nieshalla (3:26)

Correct.

Brian Alvey (3:27)

And so I've said for years, I think we do not have a funding problem. We have a spending problem at these schools. So that's my issue. But, you know, here's something I want to get into specifically with what you do with your job.

You know, Indiana is consistently ranked amongst the strongest states fiscally, right?

We are always in the top five, at least in the top five. Sometimes the top three, sometimes we hit number one. But we have the AAA credit rating, which a lot of people aren't going to understand what that means. You know, we have some of the lowest debt in the country and we have a very healthy surplus. So can you explain to the average voter, the average family, the average taxpayer, why is that important? Why is that important to them?

Elise Nieshalla (4:09)

So in recent history here in Indiana, we had the exact opposite story. In fact, our reserves were spent down from 2 billion, spent down 74 percent. And in the year 2002, our books were closed with only six cents in the general reserve fund.