This is the WFHB Local News for Monday, April 21st, 2025.
In today’s newscast, State Lawmakers Matt Pierce and Shelli Yoder sounded the alarm about the state’s 2.4 billion dollar budget shortfall during a legislative update with the local chapter of the League of Women Voters. More in today’s feature report.
That’s Aakash Parekh from Gift of Life IU, finding stem cell donors on campus to give cancer patients a second chance. Find out how to sign up for the Gift of Life donor registry later in the show on a new episode of Activate!
Former Futures Clinic Staff Call for Transparency at Monroe County Board of Health Meeting
Photo by Lauren Atkinson.
At the Monroe County Board of Health meeting on April 17th, past employees of the Futures Family Clinic spoke during public comment asking for increased transparency about the closure of the clinic.
Previous Futures employee Christine Brackenhoff, who also worked at WFHB, spoke to the board. Brackenhoff shared that she has been requesting more information as to what happened to lead to the closure of the clinic.
“The demise of Futures is a recent reflection of the Monroe County Health Department’s oversight,” said Brackenhoff. “Since the clinic’s last three staff members and representatives from Indiana Family Health Council were not involved [in the private after-action review], I am here to share more insight regarding futures, because it is also a cautionary tale.”
Previous Board Member Ashley Cranor also spoke on the matter.
“We are nearing 35-40 employees that have either resigned or been terminated in the last couple years. This is a serious loss, especially in this particular field, where training, relationships and institutional knowledge are critical,” said Cranor.
Previous employee Debbie Deckard expressed concern that she was marked as not eligible for rehire, even though she had no markups. She also criticized the manner with which the clinic was closed.
“Yes, Futures closed. We all try to go on, but we need accountability,” said Deckard. “People have not left because it’s time to walk out the door – they have left because of things going on in this health office.”
Jane Walter, who was formerly contracted to provide interpretation services, also spoke on the issue.
“I want to thank those who have made comments today about transparency and accountability in our local health department. I do not want our community to lose other local public health treasures,” said Walter.
Also during public comment another previous Futures staff member Chris Husted spoke on its closure.
“One of the major reasons that I left is, frankly, due to Lori’s leadership or lack thereof,” said Husted.
County Council Member David Henry also spoke, suggesting that they should release any notes they have on the closure of the clinic to allow the public to move forward from this issue.
“I think it’s probably time for the board to consider releasing all the notes it has regarding the Futures clinic closure to the public. There are documents that have been redacted that should perhaps shed more light on what we’re hearing here and move on,” said Henry.
The Monroe County Board of Health will meet again on May 15th.
Pierce and Yoder Sound Alarm Over $2.4 Billion Budget Shortfall and Controversial Property Tax Cuts
On Saturday, the League of Women Voters of Bloomington and Monroe County invited local lawmakers in the Indiana statehouse to provide updates on the 2025 legislative session.
This session marks a budget year. According to the state’s budget forecast, Indiana lawmakers have a 2.4 billion dollar budget shortfall with only two weeks left in the session.
State Representative Matt Pierce, who represents District 61, touched on the budget shortfall and critiqued the rushed passage of Senate Bill 1.
“So for the past decade, the Republican super majorities have been relentlessly cutting taxes for corporations, financial institutions, utilities,” said Pierce. “They’re going to turn the local officials into the villains who will probably have no choice at some point but to raise taxes to keep the services provided that people need.”
State Senator Shelli Yoder, representing District 40, also criticized the passage of the controversial Senate Bill 1, which Governor Mike Braun signed last week. SB 1 cuts property taxes by 1.2 billion dollars over three years.
However, critics suggest it will cause schools to lose revenue and force local communities to raise taxes. Yoder says the bill was rushed overnight.
“At 12:30 in the morning, that’s when we heard the most controversial bill this session, was in the middle of the night, technically the morning. And it went directly over to the governor and was signed, not because it had to, not because we were on a deadline, but because of timing,” said Yoder.
Furthermore, Yoder expressed frustration over the Statehouse’s proposed education policies, criticizing the push for universal voucher expansion.
“Universal vouchers have a very crucial impact on school funding,” she said. “Scholarships are right now going to families who are earning more than $250,000 a year – it directly impacts what we’re able to do with our public school education system in the state.”
The Statehouse session is slated to come to a close by the end of April. You can find the entire legislative update here.
Every three minutes in the United States, someone is diagnosed with blood cancer. With over 50,000 blood cancer related deaths annually, such a diagnosis can feel like a death sentence. Gift of Life is a national registry for donors of stem cells and bone marrow. If you match with a patient in need you can quite literally save their life. Aakash Parekh is president of the IU branch and he wants to sign you up on a new episode of Activate!, coming your way right now on the WFHB Local News.
You’ve been listening to the WFHB Local News,
Today’s headlines were written by Noelle Herhusky-Schneider, in partnership with Cats – Community Access Television Services.
Our feature was produced by Kade Young.
This episode of Activate! was produced by Harley Babbitt through WFHB’s partnership with The Media School at Indiana University
Our theme music is provided by Mark Bingham and the Social Climbers.
Engineer and Executive producer is Kade Young.
